First-degree Atrioventricular Heart Block
Anesthesia Implications
Anesthesia Implications
Drugs – drugs that increase vagal tone (ie. Neostigmine) should be avoided. Drugs that slow AV conduction should be avoided.
Conduct a thorough health history – this particular condition doesn’t warrant a lot of concern, but may give some indication of underlying conditions that do warrant more caution (see the pathophysiology section), so conduct a thorough health history.
Pathophysiology
This condition is characterized by a prolonged PR interval > 200 ms.
This condition is often developed as a result of the normal degenerative changes of increasing age.
Other causes include myocardial infarction, drugs that affect AV conduction (amiodarone and digitalis), and drugs that increase vagal/parasympathetic tone.
This condition is often present prior to the onset of the clinical symptoms of myotonia dystrophica.
Hines. Stoelting’s anesthesia and co-existing disease. 7th edition. 2018. p. 154