Abstract
Diagnosis and therapy of cardiac dysrhythmia has become an important subspecialization in pediatric cardiology. The limited possibilities of antiarrhythmic drug therapy and antibradycardia pacing have been expanded by completely new and fascinating developments over the last 30 years.
Curative treatment for the majority of tachyarrhythmias has been achieved by catheter ablation. Secondary as well as primary prevention of sudden arrhythmic death has become possible thanks to implantable defibrillators.
Multiple hereditary life-threatening arrhythmia syndromes have been discovered and give a fascinating insight into the molecular genetic background of arrhythmogenesis. Cardiac resynchronization therapy has evolved into one of the few causal treatment strategies for heart failure and points toward intriguing remodeling processes at the cellular level.
The following article provides practical as well as background knowledge of some of these developments.