Intravenous Sotalol: An Under Used Treatment Strategy

The pharmacologic treatment of arrhythmias has seen little advance over the past few years. Physicians treating life threatening or hemodynamically destabilizing arrhythmias depend almost entirely on intravenous (IV) amiodarone. This is regrettable due to the multiple toxicities of amiodarone and its long half-life. Once administered, it is a therapeutic commitment to long-term therapy. Given the very long terminal elimination half-life, treatment with amiodarone may interfere with baseline electrophysiologic studies and ablation procedures. Additionally, the side effect profile can be consequential, even with brief periods of treatment. Currently, sotalol, like amiodarone, is available in both IV and oral formulations, facilitating their use in emergency situations. IV sotalol has a rapid onset of action with linear pharmacokinetics. While sotalol's efficacy has mostly been evaluated in small clinical trials, 2 recent meta-analysis have been informative as to the utility of sotalol. Sotalol has similar efficacy as amiodarone, but has much more favorable adverse event profile. IV sotalol has been underutilized and could offer advantage in the treatment of AF for rate and rhythm control, as well in the pediatrics for treatment of supraventricular arrhythmias often resistant to other therapies.