Why the study?
Does venepuncture terminate stable supraventricular tachycardia in patients where usual vagal manoeuvres have failed?
Does venepuncture terminate stable supraventricular tachycardia in patients where usual vagal manoeuvres have failed?
Venepuncture may act as an effective, albeit unintentional, vagal manoeuvre for cardioversion of stable supraventricular tachycardia.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Does not support routine venepuncture for SVT; hypothesis-generating case reports leave open need for prospective trials.
Two cases are described of cardioversion from stable supraventricular tachycardia after venepuncture. In both cases usual vagal manoeuvres at home and in the casualty department were unsuccessful. However, attempts to site intravenous cannulas by the attending medical staff terminated his supraventricular tachycardia. Venepuncture is probably the commonest vagal manoeuvre performed in hospital but has not previously been reported as a method of cardioversion.
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Will Carroll (2002) studied this question.
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