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Late‐onset periodic asystolia during vagus nerve stimulation
Author(s) -
Iriarte Jorge,
Urrestarazu Elena,
Alegre Manuel,
Macías Alfonso,
Gómez Asier,
Amaro Paola,
Artieda Julio,
Viteri Cesar
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
epilepsia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.687
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1528-1167
pISSN - 0013-9580
DOI - 10.1111/j.1528-1167.2008.01918.x
Subject(s) - asystole , vagus nerve stimulation , medicine , vagus nerve , anesthesia , stimulation , cardiology
Summary Cardiac changes may occasionally occur during vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) used in epileptic patients. As they can be potentially life‐threatening, it is important to detect them, and this is why an intraoperative test is performed during the implantation. Few cases of asystole during this test have been described. Only one patient with late‐onset bradyarrythmia caused by VNS has been reported. This patient had been implanted 2 years and 4 months before the episode. We present another case of late asystole in a patient whose VNS had been implanted 9 years before the arrhythmia onset. In our patient, each run of stimulation produced bradyarrhythmias and very often severe asystolia due to atrium‐ventricular block.