The number of heart failure patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators is rising. Common issues encountered in this population are high defibrillation thresholds and inappropriate shocks. In order to resolve these problems, the addition of a class III antiarrhythmic such as sotalol is often considered. Given the emerging issue of polypharmacy and medication compliance in the heart failure population, the question of the efficacy of sotalol in reducing inappropriate shocks, defibrillation thresholds, and its ability to replace conventional beta-blockers is often raised. Current literature review suggests that sotalol is a useful adjunct to the contemporary heart failure regimen. It has the ability to reduce inappropriate shocks and defibrillation thresholds, but appears not to fully reproduce the pleiotropic beneficial effects of the beta-blockers more commonly employed for their mortality/remodeling benefits in heart failure patients.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.