Incessant Ventricular Tachycardia in Infant With Structurally Normal Heart: Is it Truly Benign or a Old Wives' Tale

Idiopathic ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a rare form of arrhythmia in neonates that can be life-threatening prompting its timely diagnosis and importance of treatment to avoid serious complications, that is; heart failure. We describe a neonate with an incessant idiopathic ventricular tachycardia presented with heart failure and severe left ventricular dysfunction. This infant presented with poor feeding, irritability, increase work of breathing, and heartbeat of 260/min. The electrocardiogram (ECG) showed wide complex tachycardia and the echocardiogram showed a structurally normal heart with dilated cardiomyopathy. The clinical signs and chest X-ray changes were consistent with cardiac failure but preserved peripheral perfusion. This presentation, the sustained VT and the global cardiac failure makes the treatment challenging; therefore, early diagnosis of incessant VT in neonate is important for better prognosis.