Medical Category: Cardiovascular

Take Home Points AVNRT is a common tachydysrhythmia that results from a reentrant loop within the AV node. Unstable patients with AVNRT should be considered for immediate synchronized electrical cardioversion. Stable patients with AVNRT can have a trial of vagal …

Background: Historically, we have treated acute coronary syndrome with supplemental oxygen regardless of the patient’s oxygen saturation.  This intervention was based on the belief that pushing the patient’s PaO2 to supra therapeutic levels would increase O2 delivery to ischemic myocardium …

Background Information: Atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular rate (RVR) is one of the many tachydysrhythmias we encounter in the Emergency Department (ED). Though consensus has been reached for first-line treatment of ventricular rate control1 with beta blockers (BB) and non-dihydropyridine …

Background Information:  Double external defibrillation (DED) is an intervention often used to treat refractory ventricular fibrillation (RVF). This procedure involves applying another set of pads attached to a second defibrillator to a patient and shocking them in hopes of terminating …

Background: There are only two interventions that have been proven in the medical literature to improved outcomes in cardiac arrest: high-quality CPR and early defibrillation. Over the years, we as a scientific community have worked extensively to find other interventions …