SVT is the most common pediatric arrhythmia, presenting with non-specific symptoms that require high clinical suspicion to prevent potentially severe consequences like heart failure and shock.
Supports vigilance for nonspecific tachycardia in children; leaves open standardization of early SVT recognition pathways.
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is the most common arrhythmia in the pediatric population. Despite its commonality, presentation of SVT can be nonspecific and varies based upon age with infants demonstrating fussiness or irritability and older children reporting vague perceptions of tachycardia or palpitations. Furthermore, SVT may manifest as self-limited paroxysms or with prolonged runs of SVT with subsequent development of cardiac dysfunction, heart failure, and multiorgan shock. Clinicians must maintain high levels of suspicion for SVT given the potentially dire consequences of untreated SVT. When diagnosed, there are effective acute and chronic treatments for SVT, with potential for spontaneous resolution in many infants.
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Spearman et al. (2014) studied this question.
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