title: Ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation: therapeutic alternatives.
abstract: It is now clear that no single therapy is appropriate for a consecutive series of patients with ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF). Drug responders by electrophysiological studies, patients who are not inducible following surgery, and patients treated with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) all can have similarly low sudden death rates and virtually identical long-term mortality. However, many patients fail to respond to drugs, and surgical risks are excessive in others, and always higher than for an ICD implant. Nevertheless, overall survival in each of these groups (and probably for patients treated with antitachycardia pacers and ablation) is about 60% at 60 months. Major challenges now are: (1) choosing therapy to maximize risk-benefit ratio; and (2) treatment of the pump failure and progressive disease that now accounts for most cardiac mortality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York 10467.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Ferrick
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Brodman
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Furman
mesh_terms: D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004554:Electric Countershock / Q000295:instrumentation; D004564:Electrocoagulation; D006801:Humans; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000628:therapy*; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents