Use of ivabradine in postoperative junctional ectopic tachycardia: A systematic review of case series and case reports

Purpose: When tachyarrhythmias originates from atrioventricular (AV) node, AV junction or bundle of His complex, they are termed “junctional ectopic tachycardia” (JET). Cardiac surgeries especially involving crux of the heart are mainly responsible for JET. Amiodarone and other pharmaco-therapeutic agents are tried as antiarrhythmics for the treatment of postoperative JET. Aim of this review was to discuss about role of ivabradine in the treatment of postoperative JET. Materials and Methods: A search was carried out for this review article on the basis of literature available including scientific databases of PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Google Scholar, using keywords “Ivabradine,” “Postoperative junctional ectopic tachycardia,” “Arrhythmias,” “Funny currents,” from October 2011 to October 2020. Results: After initial screening of 377 articles, 9 studies were included and discussed in detail in the present review article. Conclusion: Treatment of choice of postoperative JET is still not well established. Although there are very few case reports and case series that have been reported on the use of ivabradine in JET, yet it seems to offer a promising use.