What is an arrhythmia?
An arrhythmia is any disturbance of the heart's normal, even rhythm. A child's heart may beat too fast, too slowly, skip beats or add extra ones.
Children's arrhythmias are not simply adult arrhythmias in smaller people. They present differently, they respond differently to treatment, and some rhythms that would alarm you in an adult are entirely normal in a child.
What causes them
Some arise from an underlying heart condition or from previous heart surgery. Many are responses to something else entirely — fever, infection, dehydration, certain medicines, an overactive thyroid. And a child's heart rate normally changes a great deal with crying, playing, sleeping and excitement.
Most are harmless. Some are not.
The majority of arrhythmias in children are benign and need no treatment at all. But a heart that beats persistently too fast (tachycardia) or too slowly (bradycardia) can pump blood less effectively, and over time that affects the kidneys, liver, brain and the heart itself.
The task is to tell the two apart accurately — which is what the assessment is for.
When to have your child checked
How it is assessed and managed
Clinical examination, ECG, echocardiography to check the heart's structure, and where needed longer rhythm recording such as a Holter monitor to catch episodes that come and go.
Management depends entirely on the rhythm and its cause. Many children need only reassurance and observation. Some need medication. Some need a manoeuvre taught to the parents to stop an episode at home. A smaller number need specialist electrophysiological treatment, which we arrange through our network.