A 50-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with hypotension and bradycardia after receiving high doses of atenolol, amlodipine, and etizolam. He had a drug-induced J wave on electrocardiography and subsequently underwent cardiac arrest. The patient was successfully rescued by venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) and a good neurological outcome was achieved with therapeutic hypothermia (TH). In patients with J waves, TH is thought to increase the J waves and cause fatal arrhythmias, but in this case, rapid cooling with VA-ECMO allowed the patient to successfully complete TH.
Keywords: J wave; beta-blocker; calcium channel blocker; extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation; therapeutic hypothermia.