Diazepam in cardioversion

Intravenous diazepam for direct-current cardioversion.

The induction of anaesthesia with intravenous diazepam is a valuable contribution to the simpler use of cardioversion and is the method of choice because it is readily available for elective cardioversion. Fifty-six cardioversion procedures were carried out by this method in an African hospital. No special premedication or drug preparation was used. There were no hazards apart from transient ap...

Electrogenic Cardioversion

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in clinical practice. Cardioversion for AF may be performed by either using direct current (DC) shock (electrical cardioversion) or using drugs (chemical cardioversion). Here we report a case of a patient with heart failure and AF, who reverted to the normal sinus rhythm on correction of hyperkalemia (electrogenic cardioversion). The patien...

Diazepam premedication in ophthalmic surgery.

Diazepam (Valium), which meets most of the above requirements extremely well, is a tranquillizer of the benzodiazepine class, causing muscle relaxation and reduction of skeletal muscle tone (Ranidall, Heise, Schallek, Bagdon, Banziger, Boris, Mol, and Abrams, I96I). This action appears to be mediated through the central nervous system, for it can be shown that the stimulation of muscle through ...

Anaesthesia for cardioversion.

Cardioversion is a minor procedure requiring sedation and analgesia. However, it is often performed out-of-hours in remote sites by inexperienced anaesthetists. An understanding is required both of the pathophysiology underlying cardiac arrhythmias and of the technical side of defibrillation equipment, including electrical safety. Patients should have their coagulation status and electrolyte ba...

Arrhythmias Related to Cardioversion.