Teenage cardiac arrest following abuse of synthetic cannabis.

BACKGROUND

The cardiac effects of many illegal substances (cocaine, methadone) have previously been well described [1,2]. However the association between synthetic cannabis and cardiac arrest is less well documented. Here we describe an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a previously healthy 16-year-old female associated with the use of inhaled synthetic cannabis.

METHODS

An electronic systematic search of online databases PubMed and Embase was performed using keywords, "synthetic cannabis death" and "cardiac arrest".

RESULTS

In this case study a previously healthy 16-year-old had a cardiac arrest after synthetic cannabis use. Despite extensive investigations no other cause for her arrest was found. To the best of our knowledge there has been one previous case report of cardiac arrest following synthetic cannabis use in a 56-year-old man [3].

CONCLUSIONS

This case report augments the relationship between synthetic cannabis and cardiac arrest in the medical community. More awareness surrounding the risk of synthetic cannabinoids is warranted.