a. Dysrhythmia is a disturbance in cardiac rhythm.

Ninety percent of patients with acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) will experience a form of cardiac dysrhythmia during the first couple of weeks after their attack. Half of these will be life threatening and will lead to cardiac arrest (sudden stoppage of adequate cardiac output) unless properly treated.

In order to analyze and treat a dysrhythmia correctly, you must have a systematic approach to the electrocardiogram (EKG). Only after this process has been completed can you make sound judgments as to which cardiac drug to administer and when to defibrillate or use cardioversion.

b. When monitoring a patient’s EKG, remember that you are monitoring electrical activity of a heart, not mechanical activity. A pulse is always taken to assure you of the heart’s pumping action. Information learned from the EKG will be used to help determine the treatment of the dysrhythmia. Dysrhythmia treatment could be defibrillation, cardioversion, intravenous cardiac drugs, and/or cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

DYSRHYTHMIA = a disturbance in cardiac rhythm

ELECTROCARDIOGRAM = monitors electrical activity of the heart