Efficacy of intravenous amiodarone in the management of paroxysmal or new atrial fibrillation with fast ventricular response

Amiodarone prophylaxis for tachycardias after coronary artery surgery: a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial.

“…27 The detection of all supraventricular tachycardias in the first five postoperative days is consistent with other reports. Although not conclusively shown, the delayed occurrence of these arrhythmias in the amiodarone group may reflect their suppression particularly by the intravenous infusion given over the first 24 hours.…”

A randomized, controlled trial of RSD1235, a novel anti-arrhythmic agent, in the treatment of recent onset atrial fibrillation

“…For example, in recent onset AF, placebo-controlled studies of intravenous class IC agents (flecainide and propafenone) have had efficacy rates (corrected for placebo response rate) of 25% to 53% within 2 h of infusion (3). The efficacy of intravenous amiodarone is highly variable; however, it is considered less than that with the class IC agents (15)(16)(17)(18). Furthermore, responses that take 24 h to manifest, such as with amiodarone, are of limited usefulness for acute intravenous conversion of AF.…”

“…Electrical cardioversion is effective in restoring sinus rhythm but requires procedural sedation or anesthesia and is not successful in all cases. Currently available converting agents have highly variable efficacy and several safety limitations associated with their use (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). In addition, placebo-controlled trials that establish the efficacy and safety of these pharmacologic therapies for acute conversion are limited.…”

Intravenous amiodarone in intensive care

“…In uncontrolled trials [42,43,44,45] (Table 5) amiodarone cardioverted 61±89 % of various atrial tachyarrhythmias. When compared with other agents, amiodarone's performance is variable.…”