[New concepts in the diagnosis and treatment of atrial flutter]. / Nouveaux concepts dans la prise en charge diagnostique et thérapeutique du flutter atrial.

Atrial flutter may now be very frequently and definitely cured in a single session of radiofrequency ablation. However, the very name of atrial flutter gives rise to a certain confusion. Clinical experience from everyday activity in ablation laboratories, especially since the introduction of new mapping techniques, has shown that this entity is in fact multiple. Flutters may be classified by their electrocardiographic appearance and/or their electrophysiological mechanism with as many prognostic as therapeutic implications. This article reviews diagnostic features of typical and atypical flutter and the different treatments which may be proposed in different clinical situations.

[Sudden death and semi-automatic defibrillation]. / Mort subite et défibrillation semi-automatique.

While cardiac arrest in hospital poses few immediate management problems, this is not the case outside hospital. For this reason semi-automatic defibrillators are easy to handle devices designed to deliver an early electric shock in the context of usage by non-specialist people following minimum training. These devices have shown a clear improvement in survival compared to the exclusive use of a manual defibrillator by highly trained emergency services, especially in confined areas such as casinos or aircraft, or where a significant number of potential patients are concentrated, such as airports. It is now important to be able to improve public access to defibrillation by various means currently being studied, and probably by relaxing the rules which allow the use of these devices.