Cardiac tachyarrhythmias and anaesthesia: General principles and focus on atrial fibrillation

Cardiac tachyarrhythmias are encountered commonly during the perioperative period and need to be promptly identified and appropriately managed by the anaesthesiologist. This review intends to highlight important aspects of these tachyarrhythmias and explore a temporal relationship between common med...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Satyen Parida, Chitra Rajeswari Thangaswamy
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2017-01-01
Series:Indian Journal of Anaesthesia
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ijaweb.org/article.asp?issn=0019-5049;year=2017;volume=61;issue=9;spage=712;epage=720;aulast=Parida
Description
Summary:Cardiac tachyarrhythmias are encountered commonly during the perioperative period and need to be promptly identified and appropriately managed by the anaesthesiologist. This review intends to highlight important aspects of these tachyarrhythmias and explore a temporal relationship between common medications employed in the perioperative period and their causation. Mechanisms of initiation of tachyarrhythmias, drugs that can trigger those, as well as their diagnosis and management, are also parts of the current review. Cardiac tachyarrhythmias may not always require treatment, and sometimes, aggressive management can trigger more serious types of arrhythmias. A thorough understanding of these tachyarrhythmias and their pathogenesis enables adopting a more objective approach, eschewing risks of inappropriate or unnecessary management strategies. We performed a MEDLINE search using combinations of MeSH terms such as 'cardiac', 'arrhythmias', 'anaesthesia', 'perioperative', 'tachyarrhythmias' and 'anaesthetic implications'. We reviewed the relevant publications with regard to cardiac tachyarrhythmias occurring in the perioperative period.
ISSN:0019-5049
0976-2817