• Firat Bektas and Secgin Soyuncu.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, Antalya, Turkey. Electronic address: fbektas@akdeniz.edu.tr.
• Am J Emerg Med. 2016 Nov 1; 34 (11): 2090-2093.

IntroductionTranscutaneous cardiac pacing (TCP) is a rapid, time-saving, and noninvasive ventricular stimulation that is tolerated by conscious patients despite the painful intervention for treatment of symptomatic bradycardias. The goal of this study was to determine the efficacy of TCP in unstable bradycardia patients in emergency department (ED).MethodsThis single-central, observational clinical study was conducted on patients older than 18 years who presented with acute unstable bradycardia to the tertiary care university ED. Primary outcome measure was to determine the efficacy of TCP in unstable bradycardia patients in the emergency settings. Efficacy of TCP was to determine changes of clinically significant vital signs and electrocardiography.ResultsOf 349 patients who visited the ED presenting with bradycardia, 89 patients who met the criteria were included in the study. There was a statistically significant difference between before and after the first administration TCP in mean systolic (71.2 [64.8-77.6] and 105.3 [97.6-112.9 mm Hg]) and diastolic blood pressure (42.9 [38.8-47.0] and 61.0 [56.4-65.5] mm Hg) and median heart rate (40 [39-42] and 74 [71-78] beats/min, P< .0001).ConclusionTranscutaneous cardiac pacing is a clinically effective treatment modality in patients with atropine-resistant unstable bradycardia.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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