Can antiarrhythmic drugs save lives in patients with congestive heart failure?

Although arrhythmic death is a common cause of death in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), numerous trials involving prophylactic antiarrhythmic drug treatment have yielded few gains. To date, only beta-blockers have shown a distinct mortality-reducing effect and despite the antiarrythmic effect of gamma-blockers, results point towards causes other than the antiarrhythmic effect in obtaining this beneficial effect. Atrial fibrillation is an often-encountered arrhythmia in patients with CHF and recent trials have cast doubt on the present treatment strategy of persistently striving to obtain sinus rhythm. This paper outlines the results of the large clinical trials dealing with antiarrhythmic drug treatment in CHF patients with or without atrial fibrillation and certain subgroup analysis and future treatment possibilities are discussed.