Should lidocaine be administered routinely to all patients after acute myocardial infarction?

For more than 10 years, coronary care units have used electrocardiographic monitoring for detecting and treating life-threatening arrhythmias in patients who have had acute myocardial infarction. With this experience as background, it is opportune to reassess some of the principles that are used in many coronary care units for treating these patients. Some investigators question whether all patients with acute infarction should receive antiarrhythmic drugs routinely to prevent primary ventricular fibrillation. The purpose of this editorial is to review this concept.