Phenytoin in post-operative cardiac arrhythmias.

Harris andKokernot (1950), using therationale thatthemechanism offormation ofectopic cardiac rhythms mightbeanalogous toseizure activity in thecentral nervous system, successfully showed theanti-arrhythmic action ofphenytoin inexperimentally inducedventricular arrhythmias. Its valuein experimental arrhythmias was later confirmed byMoseyandTyler (1954), Covino, Wright, andCharleson (1955), White, Megirian, andSwiss(1955), Scherf etal.(1960), andBose, Saifi, andSharma(1963). Leonard (1958) reported thefirst successful documentedclinical useofphenytoin inthetreatment of recurrent ventricular tachycardia complicating myocardial infarction whichproved refractory toother treatment. Clinical interest laydormant till Osborne in1964mentioned its useinthetreatment of arrhythmias occurring after cardiac operations and cardiac catheterization. Morerecently, Bernstein etal.(1965), Conn(1965), Ruthen(1965), Karliner (1967), Bashour etal.(1968), andBigger, Schmidt, andKutt(1968) haveshownits success inthetreatmentofclinical cardiac arrhythmias particularly associated withdigitalis toxicity. Thepurpose of this presentation istoreport ontheclinical useof phenytoin inthemanagement ofarrhythmias after cardiac operations.