[Treatment of cardiac arrhythmias in aged patients (author's transl)].

The most often causes of cardiac arrhythmias in aged patients are heart failure as a consequence of coronary or of hypertensive heart disease, hypersensitive carotis-sinus, digitalisintoxication and hypokalemia. Out of that, the different tachyarrhythmias and bradyarrhythmias and often also a tachycardia-bradycardia-syndrome may develop. Appropriately it results the most often kinds of antiarrhythmic therapy as the treatment of heart failure with digitalis, diuretics and nitrates, the handling of electrostimulation with pacemakers, the removal of digitalis and the supply of potassium. Beyond of that, there are many antiarrhythmic drugs, selected for therapy of "first choice". These are betablockers in sinustachycardia, ajmaline in supraventricular ectopic beats, verapamile in supraventricular tachycardia, lidoflazine with propafenone in atrial fibrillation, propafenone in ventricular ectopic beats, lidocaine in ventricular tachycardia, electrodefibrillation in ventricular fibrillation, orciprenaline, atropine and electrostimulation in bradyarrhythmias. The relation of advantage and risk of an antiarrhythmic therapy has to be considered carefully, especially in higher decades. Mostly it is already sufficient, to avoid arrhythmias by a critical and controlled prescription of digitalis, diuretics and laxatives.