Cardiovascular instability after a cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) is a common and critical complication. In particular, cardiac interventions including a temporary and permanent pacemaker are useful for bradycardia and recurrent asystoles. On the other hand, a temporary pacemaker might be a cause of sepsis and pulmonary embolus when in place for 7 hours or longer, which can be life-threatening. A 28 year old male who suffered quadriplegia after a motor cycle traffic accident was transferred to our institute. Bradycardia and recurrent asystoles developed 18 days after the SCI. Fungal sepsis and a pulmonary thromboembolism occurred 1 week after applying a temporary pacemaker.
The bradycardia with asystole had improved slowly during the treatment for sepsis and pulmonary embolism. The temporary transvenous pacemaker was removed 43 days after the SCI.
We report a case with temporary transvenous pacemakers that resulted in an improvement in the cardiovascular instabilities without life-threatened complications.
