Temporary transvenous pacer placement under transesophageal echocardiogram guidance in the Emergency Department

Placement of a transvenous pacer is an important procedure mainly used to treat hemodynamically unstable brady-arrhythmias. In the Emergency Department (ED), wire placement into the right ventricle is typically performed blindly, or in some cases, under transthoracic ultrasound guidance. This case report describes a patient with extensive cardiac history who presented after a witnessed arrest, and after return of spontaneous circulation, sustained an unstable bradycardia requiring emergent transvenous pacer placement while in the ED. A temporary pacer wire was placed transvenously without successful capture. Transesophageal echocardiography was then utilized to guide and adjust the pacer wire placement helping to successfully achieve capture. To our knowledge, this is the first report to describe transesophageal echocardiogram-assisted placement of a transvenous pacer wire while in the ED.