Con: antiarrhythmic drugs should not be used to suppress ventricular ectopy in the perioperative period

Abstract

The alterations in autonomic tone imposed by the conduct of anesthesia and surgery predispose patients to ventricular ectopy. It is important to initially view any ectopy as a warning sign and promptly check the adequacy of ventilation and oxygenation. Most commonly an inadequate depth of anesthesia, surgical manipulation or electrolyte abnormality will be causative. Treatment of this underlying problem will usually suffice to terminate the ectopy. Importantly, many patients have preexisting, chronic, complex ventricular ectopy that gets revealed because of perioperative electrocardiographic monitoring. All available pharmacologic agents have significant adverse side effects. To date, all investigations examining outcome of suppression of ventricular ectopy show that successful suppression of ventricular ectopy was associated with an increased mortality. Although the prognosis for patients is worse when complex ventricular ectopy is associated with cardiac structural abnormalities, the optimal therapeutic approach to such patients remains undefined. Unless new data supporting the use of antiarrhythmic drugs in the perioperative setting become available, the risk to benefit ratio is considered unfavorable.