Circulation: Arrhythmia And Electrophysiology On The Beat

Dr Wang:             Welcome to the monthly podcast, On the Beat, for Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. I'm Dr Paul Wang, Editor-in-Chief, with some of the key highlights from this month's issue.                                 In our first paper, Ying Tian and associates examine the effects and long-term outcomes of percutaneous stellate ganglion blockade in the setting of drug refractory electrical storm due to ventricular arrhythmia. They studied 30 consecutive patients over nearly a five-year period. They used bupivacaine alone, or in combination with lidocaine injected into the neck with good local anesthetic spread in the vicinity of the left stellate ganglion in 15 patients, or both stellate ganglion in 15 patients.                                 The mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 34%. At 24 hours, 60% of patients were free of ventricular arrhythmia. Patients whose ventricular arrhythmia was controlled had a lower hospital mortality rate than patients whose ventricular arrh