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Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine logoLink to Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
. 1980 Dec;73(12):842–844. doi: 10.1177/014107688007301204

Effectiveness of amiodarone in resistant arrhythmias1

Arthur Hollman, Phyllis M Holt
PMCID: PMC1438221  PMID: 7452643

Abstract

Amiodarone is used in the treatment of previously drug-resistant supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias. We report our experience with amiodarone in 8 patients. Five patients had paroxysmal atrial flutter, one had paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, one had supraventricular tachycardia, and one ventricular tachycardia. Considerable improvement, both objectively and subjectively, was observed in all patients. Side effects were as follows: all patients had corneal microdeposits, one developed left bundle branch block which resolved on stopping amiodarone, and one reported constipation and abdominal pains. Six patients have been treated for 10–28 months; 3 developed tolerance at 4–14 months after the introduction of amiodarone therapy, but symptoms improved with increased dosage. It is important to watch for the development of tolerance to this drug.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Chamberlain D. A., Clark A. N. Atrial fibrillation complicating Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome treated with amiodarone. Br Med J. 1977 Dec 10;2(6101):1519–1520. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6101.1519. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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