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Jack Margolis, MD
VA Hospital Big Spring, Tex

JAMA. 1970;212(9):1524-1525.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Complete heart block is a relative uncommon finding. During the past ten years, 15 patients having a diagnosis of complete heart block were admitted to this hospital. This is an incidence of about 0.05% in 30,805 consecutive admissions.

The present study was initiated primarily because it seemed that most of the patients, who had a diagnosis of complete heart block, did well on medical management alone, whereas many reports have described large numbers of patients who received pacemakers.

In order to evaluate complete heart block in this hospital, the electrocardiograms of all patients recorded during the preceding ten years—20,000 in number—were reviewed. There were 15 instances of complete heart block. The records and ECGs of these patients were carefully examined to determine (1) what happened to the patient; (2) what happened to the complete heart block; (3) the etiology of the complete heart block; and (4) the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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