[Drug therapy of ventricular tachycardia]

For the emergency treatment of sustained, hemodynamically stable ventricular tachycardia, antiarrhythmic drugs are the therapy of choice. Mostly class I antiarrhythmic drugs, such as lidocaine or ajmaline, are preferred. In hemodynamically unstable ventricular tachycardia, electrical cardioversion should be applied, in case of recurrences, followed by pharmacological treatment with class I antiarrhythmic drugs or amiodarone. For the primary prevention of sudden cardiac death, beta-blockers and/or amiodarone are the only effective drugs. In the secondary prevention, only the implantable cardioverter/defibrillator has proved to improve the prognosis of the patients.