Why the study?
Are new onset syncopal events a risk factor for VNS-associated arrhythmia in patients with vagus nerve stimulators?
Are new onset syncopal events a risk factor for VNS-associated arrhythmia in patients with vagus nerve stimulators?
New onset syncopal events after VNS implantation should raise suspicion for VNS-induced cardiac asystole or bradycardia rather than being assumed to be new-onset epileptic seizures.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Syncope after VNS implantation should prompt evaluation for device-induced bradyarrhythmia rather than presumed.
PURPOSE: To identify risk factors for VNS-associated arrhythmia. METHODS: A literature review identified 14 papers with 21 patients. We compared patients with VNS associated arrhythmia (arrhythmia group, n = 22) and patients without VNS associated arrhythmia (control group of our VNS implanted patients, n = 29). RESULTS: New onset syncopal events following VNS placement were seen in the arrhythmia group (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Even though arrhythmia could be symptomatic, most cases associated with syncope were treated as new-onset epileptic seizures with adjustment of anti-seizure drugs. To detect cardiac asystole during VNS treatment, clinicians should be alert to the possibility of new onset syncopal events that differ from habitual seizures.
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Kato et al. (2018) studied this question.
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