Management of Ventricular Arrhythmias and Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death

Target Audience: Clinicians caring for adult patients, including primary care physicians and cardiologists

Target Population: Primarily cardiology patients, but also primary care and emergency patients

Background and Objective

This document is the ESC update of American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA)/ESC guidelines from 2006.

Key Points

• Risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD) increases with age, primarily owing to increased prevalence of atherosclerosis.

• These guideline do not endorse mass screening electrocardiography (ECG) but do endorse ECG screening young athletes and family members of SCD victims.

• Class I and Class III antiarrhythmic agents have not been sh…