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Ventricular tachycardia

Tachycardia ventricularis · Komorová tachykardie

What it is

A fast rhythm from the ventricles themselves — minutes from cardiac arrest if sustained.

Symptoms & signs

  • Palpitations with collapse
  • chest pain
  • breathlessness
  • loss of consciousness
  • often after a heart attack

🚩 Get help if…

  • call 112 / 911 now Collapse, unresponsive or not breathing normally: call and start CPR
  • call 112 / 911 now Fast pounding heartbeat with fainting, chest pain or breathlessness
  • call 112 / 911 now A shock from an implanted defibrillator followed by feeling unwell
  • see a doctor soon Palpitations with dizziness in someone with a heart condition

Where it strikes

Medical treatment

  • Immediate cardioversion if unstable
  • amiodarone
  • implantable defibrillator
  • catheter ablation
  • treat ischaemia and heart failure

Natural & lifestyle

  • Electrolyte repletion
  • avoid QT-prolonging drugs
  • cardiac rehabilitation

Emerging & experimental

  • Stereotactic radioablation of arrhythmia substrate
  • sympathetic denervation

Alternative, off-label & anecdotal

Approaches used outside the guidelines, with what their supporters report and what testing has found so far.

  • Fish oil — trials disagree, and some found more arrhythmias in people with defibrillators not confirmed in trials
  • Magnesium — small studies early / small studies

ICD codes