oxytocin and Tachycardia--Supraventricular

Supraventricular tachycardia is uncommon in pregnancy. It is defined as intermittent pathological and usually narrow complex tachycardia >120 beats/min which originates above the ventricle, excluding atrial fibrillation, flutter and multifocal atrial tachycardia. It is usually self-limiting or relatively easily treated with most cases responding to physical or pharmacological therapies. We describe a case of a woman in the third trimester of pregnancy who developed treatment-resistant supraventricular tachycardia and required induction of labour and delivery to stop the arrhythmia. A multidisciplinary team approach with a critical care trained nurse and a midwife, continuous arterial blood pressure monitoring, transthoracic echocardiography, and neuraxial analgesia facilitated safe birth in the delivery suite and termination of the arrhythmia.

Topics: Adult; Amides; Amnion; Analgesia, Patient-Controlled; Analgesics, Opioid; Anesthesia, Epidural; Anesthesia, Obstetrical; Anesthetics, Local; Anti-Arrhythmia Agents; Delivery, Obstetric; Digoxin; Dyspnea; Echocardiography; Fatigue; Female; Fentanyl; Flecainide; Humans; Labor, Obstetric; Metoprolol; Oximetry; Oxytocics; Oxytocin; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications, Cardiovascular; Ropivacaine; Tachycardia, Supraventricular