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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Implantation of Total Artificial Heart in Congenital Heart Disease
Published on: July 18, 2014
Complete heart block following penetrating chest trauma in operation Iraqi freedom
Robert E Eckart1, Edward M Falta, Robert W Stewart
128th Combat Support Hospital, Task Force North, Ibn Sina Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq. robert.eckart@us.army.mil
Abstract:
We present a 30-year-old US army soldier who had penetrating chest trauma from a road side explosive with focal cardiac injury. The soldier had penetration of his right atrium and subsequent traumatic membranous ventricular septal defect and complete heart block. He was brought to a Combat Support Hospital where fortuitously the assigned trauma surgeon on-call was a cardiothoracic surgeon, and the assigned trauma intensivist on-call was a cardiac electrophysiologist. Of course, the only source they knew of a pacemaker was halfway around the world. We discuss the management of this injury in an austere combat environment.
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