title: [Intracorporeal cardiac pacemakers for refractory tachycardia (excluding atrial disease). Apropos of 18 cases].
abstract: The treatment of paroxysmal tachycardia by the use of permanent pacing to prevent or terminate attacks is discussed. The series comprises 18 patients with follow-up periods ranging from 1 to 12 years. In 6 cases the indication for pacing was atrial tachy-arrythmias favourised by bradycardia (5 of whom had vagally- induced atrial arrythmias). The atrial pacemaker successfully prevented attacks in 4 out of 6 cases. Three cases of chronic reciprocating tachycardia were successfully treated by simultaneous atrial and ventricular pacing or using sequential pacing with a very short P-R interval. Eight cases of paroxysmal orthodromic reciprocating tachycardia in the WPW syndrome were paced: in 5 cases pacing was employed to terminate attacks by atrial (3 cases) or ventricular (2 cases) stimulation, in the other 3 cases pacing was used to prevent the bradycardia which favourised the initiation of tachycardia. Good results were obtained in all 8 cases. Ventricular stimulation was used to terminate attacks in one patient with refractory ventricular tachycardia but the patient had a sudden death probably caused by the pacemaker. The place of these different pacing techniques with respect to medical treatment and specialised arrhythmia surgery is discussed.
mesh_terms: D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial; D013614:Tachycardia, Paroxysmal / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy*; D014927:Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome / Q000628:therapy
vernacular_title: Stimulateurs cardiaques intracorporels pour tachycardies rebelles (maladie de l'oreillette exclue). A propos de 18 observations.