What drug is used to treat suprventricular tachycardia? What drug is used to treat ventricular tachycardia?

Answer 1

WOW that is a very specific question. SVT is interesting, sometimes it is not necessarialy SVT. It can be uncontrolled AFIB, but the heart is going so fast it is difficult to see on a monitor untill it is slowed down. Sometimes the doctor will ask the patient to bear down if not feeling chest pain or lightheadedness. The other mediction used is called adenosine. I have seen this work first hand, and i love watching it everytime. What happens is the doctor injects this medication by IV push, and we tell the patient that they may feel awful for about 30 seconds. On the monitor you can physically see the medication working, it stops the heart for a split second then restarts it in a Normal Sinus Rhythm. The patient feels awful as their heart was going about 200bpm then stopped and restarted at 60bpm. That would make anyone feel awful.

Ventricular tachycardia is different. Normally it is not sustained, and therefore people may experience period where they pass out and don't know why. This can be caused by many different things but potassium and magnesium imbalances seem to be most common. Sometimes it just takes treatment of the electrolyte imbalance and the VT goes away. Other times VT can be sustained and the patient needs to be cardioverted, done by a cardiologist or internist(in emerg). If the Vt is nonsustained and the patient is asymptomatic then antiarrythmia drugs are normally used to control the VT. The patient may go home on these medications and follow up with a cardiologist throughout the year.