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Adult Clinical Communications|Articles in Press

Intra-Cardiac Arrest Use of Stellate Ganglion Block for Refractory Ventricular Tachycardia

      Abstract

      Background

      Refractory ventricular dysrhythmia, or electrical storm, is a cardiac condition consisting of three or more episodes of ventricular dysrhythmia resistant to treatment within a 24 hour time period1. These dysrhythmias carry a high morbidity and mortality if not promptly diagnosed and abated. When traditional resuscitative algorithms fail to return a patient to a perfusing rhythm, providers need to consider other, more novel techniques to terminate these dangerous dysrhythmias. One approach is the use of a stellate ganglion block, which has been documented in the literature only a handful of times for its resuscitative use in cardiac arrest.

      Case Series

      : This case series details two cases out of an urban emergency department in a large metropolitan city, where the use of ultrasound-guided stellate ganglion blocks during cardiac arrest provided successful ablation of the tachydysrhythmia. The first case involves a patient who went into cardiac arrest while in the emergency department and was found to be in refractory pulseless ventricular tachycardia, while the second case describes a patient who went into a witnessed out of hospital cardiac arrest while with emergency medical services (EMS).

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