If you experienced marked bardycardia (heart rate <<60/minute) it was an accidental intra-vascular injection of local anesthetic--or possibly a situation called a vaso-vagal episode.
If you experienced marked tachycardia (heart rate >>100/minute) it was likely caused by an accidental intra-vascular injection of epinephrine making your heart race faster and/or contract more irregularly than your body's compensation mechanisms could accommodate.
You seem to be writing bradycardia but describing tachycardia.
Lots of people have a heart rate <60 or >100 every day or at times during the day/week/month... . Heart rate by itself (within reason) does not denote the entire story. Heart rates of <35ish or >200ish in average adults may be the entire problem but are rare and
perfusion of tissues remains key.
Epinephrine is made and circulated by everyone every day. A blast of it from you (fright...) or a syringe (accidentally or intentionally into a vein) can not only make your heart rate go up (or really up) but also make a heart irritable and prone to irregular beating. Irregular or really rapid heart contractions do not push blood out of the heart effectively. The resulting lack of output degrades perfusion resulting in tissues and cells failing to get the oxygen and nutrients needed to carry on their metabolism normally. If the under-perfused tissue/cells are in your brain, you become can become distressed, confused, "light headed" or experience loss of consciousness.
So, imo it
could have been either or both. It doesn't seem like you were told you had a seizure...however in a panicked dental office it may have been missed. It would also be really rare to have a dental dose of local kick off a seizure so I think your cardiologist was on the right trail.
Academically, the 15 second flat-line the paramedic described could have been induced by a defibrillation/cardioversion (shock) or a possibly a medication called adenosine which is well known to produce a few seconds of flat-line.
Lastly, not long ago lidocaine was routinely administered via bolus and/or infusion as treatment for irritable heart rhythms. It worked by "dulling" the nervous system in the heart but would occasionally result in a heart rate that was too slow.
That's probably more than you wanted to know so I'll cut it off there. Glad you're ok and it would be interesting to see your rhythm strips for this event.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rfloz
If I follow you correctly, you see the anesthetic as causal.
The cardiologist I saw immediately after my "death" seemed pretty sure it was the epinephrine included with the lidocaine that that caused the Bradycardia (very rapid uncontrolled heart rate) that caused the heart to stop, not the anesthetic in the lidocaine.
I've been told by doctors that epinephrine is often given to people to revive them after heart stoppage. Of course, not directly into a vein.
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