Emergency situations in sinus node dysfunction

Sinus node dysfunction may produce in some cases life threatening medical emergencies. From 138 patients with sinus node dysfunction followed up in our department, we present 8 cases in which emergency situations required special therapeutical approaches (precordial thump, atrial or ventricular pacing, permanent pacemaker implantation). These situations appeared spontaneously, during the investigation procedures or after conversion of atrial fibrillation, performed for therapeutic purposes, when this arrhythmia concealed a sinus node dysfunction. The tachy-brady-arrhythmia could be influenced only by the implantation of a permanent pacemaker.