What should we do if children have frequent premature ventricular beats?

Many people don’t know what ventricular premature beats are. In the beginning, many people actually feel very strange when they see ventricular premature beats, because many people have never heard of it. So, what is the explanation for ventricular premature beats? Premature ventricular beats refer to an obstruction in the blood flow to the heart, which then causes ventricular contraction. It has many clinical symptoms, ranging from no symptoms at the beginning, to mild palpitations, and then to fainting. So what should we do if a child has this disease!

The first step in treating patients with premature ventricular beats and paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia is to identify the presence of symptoms associated with the arrhythmia. If there are severe symptoms related to arrhythmia, regardless of whether there is organic heart disease or what kind of organic heart disease it is, it is necessary to give appropriate treatment to improve the patient's symptoms, although this treatment does not necessarily increase the patient's survival rate.

There are no specific antiarrhythmic drugs clinically used to treat symptomatic ventricular premature beats or short-term ventricular tachycardia. Class I and II drugs, beta-blockers, and calcium antagonists have varying success rates.

Since the symptoms of the above-mentioned arrhythmias are mostly mild, the patient should first be informed of the nature of the arrhythmia to relieve his or her anxiety. At the same time, the patient should be informed of the possible adverse effects of drug treatment. Antiarrhythmic drugs should not be used first unless such treatment can clearly improve the quality of life. For patients who do have symptoms and need treatment, beta-blockers or calcium antagonists are generally used first.

In patients with organic heart disease, especially those with heart failure, amiodarone is often used because Class I antiarrhythmic drugs can increase the patient's mortality rate. For frequent premature ventricular beats and paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia originating from the right ventricular outflow tract, the efficacy of beta-blockers is 50%. The efficacy of amiodarone, propafenone and calcium antagonists is relatively low.

Since these patients have frequent arrhythmias, the effectiveness of their medication can be judged by the results of dynamic electrocardiogram or electrophysiological examination. If such patients are refractory to treatment with beta-blockers and calcium antagonists, electrophysiological testing and catheter radiofrequency ablation should be performed. Catheter ablation has a very low risk of this type of arrhythmia and a success rate of over 80%.

This disease sounds very scary, but if it is discovered early and the child can receive timely treatment, I believe the condition can be alleviated. After all, medical technology is so advanced now. Therefore, when a child is found to have such a disease, medical treatment must be sought promptly without delay.