Long-term control of intractable supraventricular tachycardia by ventricular pacing.

The prevention of rapid dysrhythmias in patients without heart block by pacing the heart above a critical rate has been utilized on a short-time basis for some years, particularly in patients with recent cardiac infarction (Sowton, Leatham, and Carson, 1964; Heiman and Helwig, 1966), or in those who have undergone cardiac surgery (Eraklis, Green, and Watson, 1965). The technique of overdriving in this way is usually applied only as a temporary measure but is applicable also to the long-term treat- ment of patients with tachycardia In this report we describe our clinical experience over the past two years with this method of treatment of supraventricular tachycardia.