The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Vol 69, 891-894, Copyright © 1975 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Western Thoracic Surgical Association
Control of arrhythmias following ligation of the circumflex artery
LC Armiger and JG Elswijk
In experimental work, three groups of 10 dogs each were subjected to
ligation of the circumflex coronary artery. One group was given
prophylactic medication with procainamide and another group was allowed a 2
hour interval between thoracotomy and ligation. The effects of these
measures on the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias during the 30 minutes
immediately after coronary artery occlusion were then compared. The two
groups of animals on which these preventive measures were tested both
showed a significant reduction in incidence of arrhythmias as compared to
the control group. The therapeutic use of procainamide was also assessed by
administering the drug intravenously to all animals developing postligation
arrhythmias in the two groups which were not prophylactically medicated. In
46 per cent of these cases, the arrhythmias were suppressed and threatened
ventricular fibrillation was obviated.