Comparative Analysis of Carotid Massage and Valsalva for SVT Reversion in Prehospital Settings

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
LITERATURE REVIEW
Research Question
How effective is carotid massage as a reversion technique in comparison to the
Valsalva, for adult patients in a prehospital setting experiencing SVT.
Introduction
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is a generic term that is used to describe
tachycardia originating from ventricles. More specifically it can be stated that SVT is used to
define tachycardias which encompass nodal dependent re-entrant circuit like atrioventricular
nodal re-entrant tachycardia (AVNRT) or atrioventricular re-entrant tachycardia (AVRT).
Symptomatic tachycardias are fatal and demands immediate medical attention [1]. Patients
who are suffering from cardiac arrhythmia supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) are generally
present to the healthcare professionals under emergency of pre-hospital settings. Restoration
of the sinus rhythm via reducing SVT deals with increase in the refractoriness of AV nodal
tissue present within myocardium via the application of pharmacological agents or electrical
cardioversion. However, these pharmacological interventions at times are not effective in
generating the desired results and this increases the demand for the other non-vasive
techniques. Among the non-invasive techniques, two of the popular name in the domain of
managing SVT is Valsalva Manoeuvre (VM) and carotid sinus massage (CSM). Both these
techniques help to increase the myocardial refractoriness via increasing the intrathoracic
pressure for a short span of time [2]. However, at present there lack a comparative review of
literature to determine the efficacy of each of the two above mentioned non-invasive
techniques in the domain of treating SVT. Hence the following review of literature aims of
analysis a comparative analysis of two techniques, VM and CSM via citing relevant literary
articles.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Methodology
A systematic review of literature will start with screening or articles in an organised
and methodical manner in order to highlight relevant studies. To initiate research, proper
identification of the keywords must be used [3]. The keywords should be designed in such a
way that it covers the key concepts of the research questions [4]. Following is the list of
keywords used for literature search in the electronic databases.
Keywords
Supraventricular tachycardia
Valsalva Manoeuvre
Carotid sinus massage
Reversion technique
Table 1: Keywords
Electronic databases are chosen because online resources provide huge access of current
research papers [5]. The online resources which were selected for the literature research are
described below.
Electronic Databases
APA-FT
BioMed Central
British Pharmacopoeia
Cochrane Library
CINAHL with Full Text
Medline via Web of Science
MEDLINE with Full Text (via EBSCOHost)
PubMed