Effect of Anesthetization of A-V Node on Ventricular Fibrillation Following Acute Coronary Arterial Occlusion

¹ From the Department of Surgery, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi

Anesthetization of the A-V node with procaine to produce complete atrioventricular dissociation was found to reduce the incidence of ventricular fibrillation following left coronary artery ligation, which in all control animals resulted in ventricular fibrillation in less than 150 seconds. Of 14 dogs in which idioventricular rhythms were produced, three fibrillated at 30 seconds, 7 minutes and 18 minutes, respectively, while the remaining 11 hearts gradually slowed and stopped after periods up to 45 minutes without fibrillation or other arrhythmia. Of the two dogs which developed an atrioventricular nodal rhythm following procainization, one fibrillated at 9 minutes after coronary ligation, while the other gradually slowed to asystole in 11 minutes.