Flecainide acetate for the treatment of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias

INTRODUCTION: Flecainide is a class Ic antiarrhythmic agent available in Europe since 1982. The clinical development program of flecainide provided good data on its antiarrhythmic effect for the prevention of ventricular and supraventricular arrhythmias. The Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST), conducted to test whether the arrhythmia suppression translates into prevention of sudden death, assessed the impact of flecainide and encainide therapy in patients with frequent ventricular ectopics and reduced left ventricular function who had survived an infarction. In that population, flecainide and encainide increased mortality. Consequently, sodium channel blockers are now rarely used to prevent sudden death and are not recommended in patients with heart failure. Current European and North American guidelines recommend the use of flecainide in carefully selected patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and no documented structural heart disease.

AREAS COVERED: The aim of this review is to evaluate the available data on efficacy and safety of flecainide in all the spectrum of its indications including cardioversion of recent-onset AF, sinus rhythm maintenance in paroxysmal AF and management of ventricular tachyarrhythmias.

EXPERT OPINION: In the setting of AF and in carefully selected patients without structural heart disease, flecainide has shown a good efficacy and safety for both cardioversion and sinus rhythm maintenance.