13th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 1998

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-153

Transesophageal atrial pacing combined with flecainide in treatment of atrial flutter in elderly patients

Grzegorz Raczak, Dorota Jackowiak, Andrzej Lubinski, Robert Krasowski, Dariusz Zacharek, Grazyna Swiatecka.
II Department of Cardiology, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland

Introduction

Atrial flutter (AFl) is a relatively common supraventricular tachyarrhythmia which can produce abrupt and serious hemodynamic deterioration especially in elderly patients with a structural heart disease. Pharmacological treatment seldom interrupts episodes of AFl^1,2. Electrical cardioversion is more effective, but requires a general anesthesia, which is contraindicated in elderly persons. Transesophageal atrial pacing (TAP) is a safe method³ and has its well established value in the treatment of AFl in a general population^4-9. Less is known about the efficacy of this method in elderly patients. Another problem is the influence of antyarrhythmic drugs on the rate of AFl episodes interruption by TAP^4,6,7. Therefore, the aim of our study was to assess the efficacy and tolerance of TAP combined with flecainide for AFl interruption in elderly patients.