Out-of-body experience and auditory and visual hallucinations in a patient with cardiogenic syncope: Crucial role of cardiac event recorder in establishing the diagnosis.
Out-of-body experience (OBE) and visual and auditory hallucinations can occur in a variety of medical conditions. We describe a 48-year-old male patient who experienced several paroxysmal events with different combinations of the aforementioned symptoms that could finally be attributed to cardiogenic syncope after subcutaneous implantation of an event recorder and that ceased after implantation of a cardiac pacemaker. Hallucinations and OBE are well-known phenomena in syncope. The special purpose of this report is to highlight the crucial role of implantation of the event recorder in establishing the diagnosis and the additional support of the diagnosis by the cessation after implanting the cardiac pacemaker.
Brandt
Christian
C
Bethel Epilepsy Centre, Department of General Epileptology, Maraweg 21, Bielefeld D-33617, Germany. Christian.brandt@mara.de
Kramme
Corinna
C
Storm
Hermann
H
Pohlmann-Eden
Bernd
B
D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013575:Syncope / Q000150:complications*