Prolonged Ventricular Tachycardia

PROLONGED ventricular tachycardia is still a rather infrequent occurrence and therefore warrants a report of cases. The longest case on record was reported by B. Moia and M. Campana,1who state that it lasted for 123 days, ending fatally. Large doses of quinidine were administered intravenously. Most of the cases reported varied in duration from 11 to 77 days. Invariably, all cases lasting over 20 days ended fatally. We shall review briefly some of the reports concerning prolonged ventricular tachycardia. Vakil and Vahia2reported on a 38-year-old man, a Moslem, with ventricular tachycardia which continued without intermission for 20 days and terminated abruptly after intensive quinidine therapy. Porter3in 1924 reported a case lasting six days, with recovery. The patient had an underlying myocardial infarction. Levine and Fulton4reported a fatal case of ventricular tachycardia in which the paroxysm continued for 14 days. Salley5in 1932 cited a fatal case