Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society 2014 Consensus Statement: Pharmacotherapies in Cardiac Critical Care Antiarrhythmics.

OBJECTIVE: Arrhythmias are a common occurrence in critically ill pediatric patients. Pharmacotherapy is a usual modality for treatment and prevention of arrhythmias in this patient population. This review will highlight particular arrhythmias in the pediatric critical care population and discuss salient points of pharmacotherapy of these arrhythmias. The mechanisms of action for the various agents, potential adverse events, place in therapy, and evidence for their use will be summarized.

DATA SOURCES: The literature was searched for articles related to the topic. Expertise of the authors and a consensus of the editors were additional sources of data in the article.

DATA SYNTHESIS: The author team synthesized the current pharmacology and recommendations and present them in this review. Tables were generated to summarize the state of the art evidence-based practice.

CONCLUSION: Specialized knowledge as to the safe and effective use of the antiarrhythmic pharmacotherapy in the intensive care setting can lead to safe and effective rhythm management in patients with complex heart disease.