Safety of antiarrhythmics during pregnancy: case report and review of the literature.

A young woman is reported with intractable sustained ventricular tachycardia thought to originate in the right ventricle, which was treated successfully with encainide after failure to respond to beta-blockers and several class IA antiarrhythmic agents. She became pregnant twice while on encainide and gave birth to two healthy children. This is the first report of pregnancy during treatment with encainide. A literature review showed no other reported case of encainide taken during pregnancy, but several reports of the safe use of flecainide, a similar class IC drug, during pregnancy. Other antiarrhythmics are also reviewed.