Does the heart REALLY stop when you give Adenosine to an SVT patient – find out with POCUS!

I know. It’s a question that you have all asked yourselves. Does Adenosine REALLY stop the heart when given for SVT? Thanks to POCUS/EDE, we have the answer! Rob Simard was in Sudbury last year doing his emergency ultrasound fellowship. He saw a patient with recurrent SVT. We decided to go with Adenosine since it had worked in the past. After a few seconds of intermittent pauses (seen both on the rhythm strip and on the ultrasound screen), the Adenosine was successful.

For the students out there…check out the “Action on the heart” section of the Adenosine page on Wikipedia to find out how Adenosine works. Patients often have a feeling of impending doom when given Adenosine. When you watch the video, you can see why! Some prefer giving Verapamil, which was the drug of choice 20+ years ago for SVT prior to the introduction of Adenosine.