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).
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
March 7,
2023
Received in revised form:
January 29,
2023
Received:
December 7,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Accepted ManuscriptIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
