Pharmacological therapy of ventricular tachycardias

For the emergency treatment of sustained, hemodynamically stable ventricula r tachycardia, antiarrhythmic drugs are the therapy of choice. Mostly class I antiarrhythmic drugs, such as lidocaine or ajmaline, are preferred. In h emodynamically unstable ventricular tachycardia, electrical cardioversion s hould be applied, in case of recurrences, followed by pharmacological treat ment with class I antiarrhythmic drugs or amiodarone. For the primary preve ntion of sudden cardiac death, beta -blockers and/or amiodarone are the onl y effective drugs. In the secondary prevention, only the implantable cardio verter/defibrillator has proved to improve the prognosis of the patients.