e to five minutes. Epinephrine improves blood flow through the body and holds the heart in a contractile state until it the entire heart can relax. This allows the AV node to regain control of the heart's beating.After administering epinephrine, the patient is then again defibrillated at three hundred sixty joules, within thirty to sixty seconds. If ventricular tachycardia persists, other medications are given. These include lidocaine, bretylium, and magnesium sulfate.Lidocaine suppresses the premature or extra beats of the heart. This drug is given rapidly in a dose of one to five milligrams per kilogram. Lidocaine is often effective, but also dangerous. Too much lidocaine can produce a toxicity that can cause slurred speech, muscle twitching and seizures, an altered level of consciousness, and even further heart dysrhythmias. If lidocaine doesn't work, the next drug to use, after again defibrillating, is bretylium. Bretylium is administered at a rate of five milligrams per kilogram repeating every five minutes at ten milligrams per kilogram, with a maximum of thirty-five milligrams per kilogram. Side effects of bretylium include vertigo, dizziness, hypotension or low blood pressure, and bradycardia, an abnormally slow heart rate. After administering bretylium, use cardioversion at the same level, three hundred sixty joules.When lidocaine and bretylium both fail to produce positive results, magnesium sulfate can be used. Magnesium sulfate is an antidysrhythmic, meaning that it establishes a normal heart rhythm. Magnesium sulfate can also cause hypotension, bradycardia, and circulatory collapse among other side effects. It is a last resort drug for ventricular tachycardia.Other medications, however, are indicated for an unusual form of ventricular tachycardia called Torsade de Pointes. Torsade de Pointes is the irregular rhythm of ventricular tachycardia, but it occurs in a pattern of small series of waves that increase t...
