REVIEW   

Minerva Cardiology and Angiology 2023 December;71(6):622-30

DOI: 10.23736/S2724-5683.22.06176-2

Copyright © 2022 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Oral mexiletine for ventricular tachyarrhythmias treatment in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator patients: a systematic review of the literature

Hussam ALI ¹ ✉, Ernesto CRISTIANO ^{1, 2}, Pierpaolo LUPO ¹, Sara FORESTI ¹, Guido DE AMBROGGI ¹, Carmine DE LUCIA ¹, Dario TURTURIELLO ¹, Edoardo M. PAGANINI ¹, Riccardo BESSI ¹, Ahmad A. FARGHALY ^{1, 3}, Leoluca NICOLÌ ¹, Riccardo CAPPATO ¹

¹ Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology Center, IRCCS MultiMedica, Sesto San Giovanni, Milan, Italy; ² Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; ³ Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Assiut, Assiut, Egypt

INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the clinical outcomes of oral mexiletine (oMXT) to treat ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VTAs) in the era of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) technology.
EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A systematic search was conducted using PubMed, Embase and Cochrane databases following the PRISMA guidelines to collect literature data reporting oMXT efficacy and safety outcomes in treating VTAs in ICD recipients.
EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Final analysis included four studies accounting for a total of 91 patients with recurrent VTAs treated with oMXT. Amiodarone therapy was initially attempted in most patients (91.2%), while catheter ablation was performed in one-third of patients. VTA recurrences were observed in 55/91 patients (60.4%) during oMXT treatment compared to 91/91 (100%) before treatment (P<0.001). Appropriate therapies occurred in 55/88 ICD patients (62.5%) during oMXT treatment compared to 80/88 (90.9%) before treatment (P<0.001). After oMXT introduction, there was a significant reduction of the individual burden of VTA episodes and appropriate ICD therapies per patient, showing Hedges’g values of -1.103 (P=0.002) and -1.474 (P=0.008), respectively. Safety analysis showed a sample-weighted overall side-effect rate of 30%, while 21% of patients required drug reduction or discontinuation. Aggregated meta-regression analysis of the included studies and remote literature revealed a linear correlation between oMXT dosage and the overall side effects rate (r² = 0.48; P=0.014).
CONCLUSIONS: Oral mexiletine provides an adjunctive treatment to manage VTAs and reduces appropriate therapies in ICD patients with moderate efficacy and acceptable safety profiles. These observations await confirmation through randomised clinical trials.

KEY WORDS: Tachycardia, ventricular; Mexiletine; Defibrillators, implantable