Texas Heart Institute journal
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Electrical injury can cause a variety of cardiac arrhythmias. Atrial fibrillation as a result of such injury is fairly rare, however, and is rarer still in cases of low-tension electrical injury. We present the case of a patient who developed acute atrial fibrillation in association with low-voltage electrical injury, which resolved after the intravenous administration of digoxin.
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Case Reports
Transcatheter closure of a patent foramen ovale in an adult with hypoxemia after cardiac transplantation.
We describe a case of refractory hypoxemia secondary to a patent foramen ovale immediately after orthotopic heart transplantation in a 60-year-old woman. The patent foramen ovale was successfully closed with a septal occlusion device, with resolution of the hypoxemia. To our knowledge, transcatheter closure of a patent foramen ovale in an adult patient with refractory hypoxemia during the immediate post-transplant period has not previously been reported.
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Case Reports
Vasoplegic syndrome after off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery: an unusual complication.
We report the case of a 65-year-old man who developed norepinephrine-resistant vasoplegic syndrome after elective off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery (OPCAB). The failure of norepinephrine to improve the patient's hemodynamics prompted us to start treatment with vasopressin; within 30 minutes, the hemodynamics began to improve. ⋯ To our knowledge, ours is the 1st report of vasopressin use for vasodilatory shock after OPCAB in the English-language medical literature. Herein, we discuss the pathophysiology and management of vasoplegic syndrome--which is controversial--with special emphasis on the use of vasopressin in this situation.