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CASE REPORT
Emergent pacemaker placement in a patient with Lyme carditis-induced complete heart block and ventricular asystole
  1. Adam J Brownstein1,
  2. Samir Gautam2,3,
  3. Paras Bhatt3,4,
  4. Michael Nanna2,3
  1. 1Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  2. 2Department of Internal Medicine, Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  3. 3VA Connecticut Health System West Haven Campus, West Haven, Connecticut, USA
  4. 4Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Division of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  1. Correspondence to Adam J Brownstein, adam.brownstein{at}yale.edu

Summary

We report a case of a 31-year-old man who presented to the emergency department after four episodes of syncope within a 24 h time span. He was found to have symptomatic complete heart block associated with episodes of ventricular asystole lasting 5–6 s. He underwent emergent permanent pacemaker insertion during which he was found to have no underlying rhythm. He was later found to have positive serologies for Lyme disease despite no known exposure to ticks and neither signs nor symptoms of the disease. The pacemaker was ultimately removed due to resolution of his heart block with antibiotic therapy.

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