About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffThe complications of bundle branch block are similar whether the blockage is on the right or left side of your heart. Complications may include:
- Slow heart rate
- Heart arrhythmia
- Cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death
People who have a heart attack and develop a bundle branch block have a higher chance of complications and death than do people who have heart attacks and don't develop a bundle branch block.
In addition, because bundle branch block affects the electrical activity of your heart, it can sometimes complicate the accurate diagnosis of other heart conditions, especially heart attacks, and lead to delays in proper management of those problems.
- Bundle branch block. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/print_presenter.jhtml?identifier=990. Accessed Jan. 12, 2010.
- Bundle branch and fascicular block. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/print/sec07/ch075/ch075i.html. Accessed Jan. 10, 2010.
- Francia P, et al. Left bundle-branch block — Pathophysiology, prognosis and clinical management. Clinical Cardiology. 2007;30:110.
- ACC/AHA 2008 guidelines for device-based therapy of cardiac rhythm abnormalities: A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the ACC/AHA/NASPE 2002 Guideline Update for Implantation of Cardiac Pacemakers and Antiarrhythmia Devices) developed in collaboration with the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2008;51:e1.
- Goldberger AL, et al. Electrocardiography. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2871872. Accessed Jan. 10, 2010.
- Horton CL, et al. Right bundle-branch block in acute coronary syndrome: Diagnostic and therapeutic implications for the emergency physician. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2009;27:1130.
- Wong CK, et al. Prognostic differences between different types of bundle branch block during the early phase of acute myocardial infarction: Insights from the Hirulog and Early Reperfusion or Occlusion (HERO)-2 trial. European Heart Journal. 2006;27:21.
- ABC's of preventing heart disease, stroke and heart attack. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/print_presenter.jhtml?identifier=3035374. Accessed Jan. 12, 2010.
- Grogan M (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Jan. 25, 2010.
- Arnsdorf MF. Overview of left bundle branch block. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 13, 2010.
- Arnsdorf MF. Overview of right bundle branch block. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 13, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on