Stokes–Adams syndrome, Adams–Stokes syndrome or Gerbec–Morgagni–Adams–Stokes syndrome is a periodic fainting spell in which there is intermittent complete heart block or other high-grade arrhythmia that results in loss of spontaneous circulation and inadequate blood flow to the brain. Subsequently, named after two Irish physicians, Robert Adams (1791–1875)R. Adams. Cases of Diseases of the Heart, Accompanied with Pathological Observations. Dublin Hospital Reports, 1827, 4: 353–453. and William Stokes (1804–1877),W. Stokes. Observations on some cases of permanently slow pulse. Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, 1846, 2: 73–85. the first description of the syndrome is believed to have been published in 1717 by the Carniolan physician of Slovene descent Marko Gerbec. It is characterized by an abrupt decrease in cardiac output and loss of consciousness due to a transient arrhythmia; for example, bradycardia due to complete heart block.
