Woman develops Asthma after pacemaker implantation: case report

Clinicians from Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains, Missouri have reported a case of a 58-year-old woman who developed Asthma after implantation of a permanent pacemaker. The case report is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Previous reports of complications after insertion of a permanent cardiac pacemaker have described rare local reactions caused by a metal allergy that can be severe enough to cause wound dehiscence and require pacemaker removal. But asthma induced by the allergy to the metal used in pacemaker has not previously been described. It is unprecedented that an allergic reaction to the metal used in a pacemaker's casing could cause asthma in susceptible patients.

Clinicians from Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains, Missouri cite the case of a 58-year-old woman who had new episodes of wheezing, chest tightness, and worsening shortness of breath on minimal exertion 3 weeks after implantation of a permanent pacemaker.

The patient: a 58-year-old woman who developed wheezing, chest tightness, and worsening dyspnea on minimal exertion 3 weeks after implantation of a permanent pacemaker. The patient was a non-smoker with a history of seasonal allergies in childhood."On physical examination, the patient had diffuse, bilateral expiratory wheezes on chest auscultation and a raised, erythematous, mildly pruritic and non-crusting rash confined to the skin immediately around the insertion site for her pacemaker," reported Biplab Saha, MD, of Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains, Missouri.