• Lucinda E Remilton, Rasmus Hesselfeldt, and Stefan M Mazur.
• SAAS MedSTAR Emergency Medical Retrieval Service, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
• Emerg Med Australas. 2019 Aug 1; 31 (4): 575-579.

ObjectivesTo report on the safety and efficacy of transvenous cardiac pacing wire insertion outside a tertiary hospital by a medical retrieval service.MethodsSAAS MedSTAR Emergency Medical Retrieval Service transports symptomatic bradycardic patients in rural South Australia to Adelaide on transvenous pacing for ongoing management. This is a retrospective case review of all transvenous cardiac pacing wires inserted by SAAS MedSTAR between January 2015 and October 2017.ResultsThis study demonstrated successful insertion of cardiac transvenous pacing wires and cardiac capture in 10 of 11 cases (91%) by pre-hospital and retrieval doctors. There were no immediate or long-term complications from insertion. All of the patients were successfully transferred by helicopter or fixed wing to their receiving facility, with nine of the 11 patients (82%) surviving to hospital discharge.ConclusionThis paper demonstrates that transvenous cardiac pacing can be safely and successfully implemented for symptomatic patients by pre-hospital and retrieval physicians in the aeromedical retrieval setting.© 2019 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.

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