What to do in case of tachycardia?
Tachycardia or palpitations are the colloquial descriptions of the so-called tachycardia, a condition defined as a pulse rate of at least 100 beats per minute. Normally, the heart beats about 60-80 times per minute in adults. If it is highly accelerated, a person with tachycardia perceives this as a palpitations that can be accompanied by other symptoms.
The therapy of tachycardia depends primarily on the underlying cause. If it occurs naturally, i.e. in situations of physical or psychological stress, it is usually not treated at all. Here it is actually sufficient to switch off the stress factor, for example to sit down and rest or to try to calm down and get nervousness or anxiety under control.
In severe cases it can also sometimes be useful to try autogenic training or other stress management strategies or even to start psychotherapy. Herbal tranquilizers, such as valerian, can also be used. In addition, promoting factors such as alcohol, nicotine and caffeine should of course be avoided as far as possible.
The most frequently applied therapy for tachycardia is called cardioversion. This means the restoration of a normal heart rhythm. Most forms of tachycardia, which are caused by a disorder of the heart, can be treated with the help of medication, i.e. drug-induced cardioversion.
These include amiodarone (note: sometimes severe thyroid side effects, so should only be used in healthy thyroid patients), ajmalin or flecainide. The advantage is the non-invasive treatment and the fact that the patient can carry it out independently. The second option is electrical cardioversion.
In this form of therapy, the patient is first put under anesthesia. Then he receives a small electric shock, which should lead to the heart being completely switched off once and then all cells can resume a normal rhythm at the same time. Depending on the cause of the tachycardia, surgery can eliminate the tachycardia by restoring the original correct function of the excitation conduction system.
A special form is the so-called ablation, in which the tissue of the heart, which is responsible for the rhythm disturbance, is either sclerosed by heat or cold and thus rendered harmless. In rare cases (especially in the case of tachycardia caused by atrial fibrillation), it makes sense to insert a pacemaker into a patient with tachycardia, which can regulate the propagation of excitation to the ventricles. In the extreme case of ventricular fibrillation, in which the heart is no longer capable of expelling blood and therefore functionally stops, the patient must be resuscitated with the aid of a defibrillator.
This means that he or she receives a current surge that has the same purpose as electrical cardioversion, but at a much higher current intensity. If the risk of a patient dying from ventricular fibrillation is considered to be greatly increased, one may consider implanting a defibrillator, which simply reacts automatically to a cardiac arrest with a shock. If another disease, such as hyperthyroidism, is the cause of the heart palpitations, it should be treated first. After successful treatment of the underlying disease, the heartbeat usually returns to normal on its own. In the case of congenital tachycardia, the therapy of choice is surgery, in which the disturbance in the excitation conduction system is corrected, thus allowing a normal heart rhythm to be achieved.
