Efficacy and tolerance of high-dose intravenous amiodarone for recurrent, refractory ventricular tachycardia

Intravenous amiodarone for the pharmacological termination of haemodynamically-tolerated sustained ventricular tachycardia: is bolus dose amiodarone an appropriate first-line treatment?

“…In particular, several studies have shown that prolonged amiodarone infusion is effective for suppressing recurrent haemodynamically-destabilising ventricular tachyarrhythmias over a time course of several hours to days 3 4 12 22. However, early recurrence of VT is relatively uncommon (only 1/41 patients in this series) and continuous amiodarone infusion is not required routinely after termination of the initial episode.…”

ACC/AHA/ESC 2006 Guidelines for Management of Patients With Ventricular Arrhythmias and the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death

“…Intravenous ajmaline is used frequently in some European countries. Intravenous amiodarone loading has proved useful in unstable and recurrent VT, especially when VT is recurrent after countershock and other antiarrhythmic measures (362)(363)(364)(365)(366). It is also reasonable in patients in whom oral amiodarone is required after the intravenous phase.…”

Comparative Effects of Rapid Bolus Administration of Aqueous Amiodarone Versus 10-Minute Cordarone I.V. Infusion on Mean Arterial Blood Pressure in Conscious Dogs

“…Intravenous amiodarone is an effective antiarrhythmic agent [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], however, the standard formulation (Cordarone IV) has significant side effects. The most common is hypotension that can be serious leading to cardiovascular collapse [15,16] and may result in fatalities [16,17].…”