Acute cardiac arrhythmias following surgery for congenital heart disease: mechanisms, diagnostic tools, and management.

This article focuses on the management of those cardiac arrhythmias most commonly seen in the immediate postoperative period. They include ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, atrial flutter, junctional ectopic tachycardia, bradycardia, and atrioventricular block. The mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias are reviewed followed by a brief overview of the predominant acute arrhythmias, tools used for the diagnostic evaluation of these arrhythmias, management strategies, and, finally, nursing considerations.

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