Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about arrhythmias.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero tofinals.com slash arrhythmiers

or in the cardiology section of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

Arithmias are abnormal heart rhythms.

They result from an interruption to the normal electrical signals that coordinate the contraction

of the heart muscle.

There are several types of arrhythmias,

each with different causes and different management options. This section is a summary to help

with your exam preparation and is based on the guidelines from the Resuscitation Council UK from

2021. Attend the relevant courses, follow full guidelines and involve experience seniors when you're

treating patients.

Let's start by talking about the cardiac arrest rhythms.

There are four possible rhythms that can occur in a pulseless patient.

These rhythms are either shockable, meaning that defibrillation may be

effective, or non-shockable, meaning that defibrillation will not be effective. The shockable rhythms are

ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation. The two non-shockable rhythms are acystole, which is where there's no significant electrical

activity, or pulseless electrical activity, which is all electrical activity except

ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. And this includes if the patient

has sinus rhythm, but no pulse. Next let's talk about narrow complex tachycardia. Narrow complex

tachycardia refers to a fast heart rate with a QRS complex duration of less than 0.12 seconds.

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