Skip Navigation

Europace 2005 7(2):175-180; doi:10.1016/j.eupc.2004.12.010
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (5)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bartsch, C.
Right arrow Articles by Weiler, G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Bartsch, C.
Right arrow Articles by Weiler, G.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2005 The European Society of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Post-mortem evaluation of 415 pacemakers: in situ measurements and bench tests*

C. Bartscha,*, W. Irnicha, M. Jungeb, W.A. Stertmannc, M. Rissea and G. Weilera

aDepartment of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Frankfurter Strasse 58, 35392 Giessen, Germany; bDepartment of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Hamburg, Germany; cClinic of Cardiac and Vascular Surgery, University Hospital Giessen, Germany

AIM: The hypothesis was that there is more undetected dysfunction of implanted pacemaker systems than that detected and corrected. This prompted a research project (sponsored by the German Research Foundation) to detect pacemaker abnormalities and evaluate their complications for patients, thus, proving or disproving the hypothesis.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Four hundred and fifteen pacemakers of deceased patients were analyzed assessing their functionality by in situ measurements and bench tests including five measurements and one telemetric interrogation. Results were divided into four categories and statistically evaluated. Life-threatening abnormalities were found in 3.8%, potentially life-threatening in 3.7%, probably symptomatic, divided into atrial and ventricular problems, 13.3% and 2.8%, respectively, and premature exhaustion in 1.2%. Three of 179 bipolar ventricular leads and 2 of 131 bipolar atrial leads had insulation defects corresponding to 1.7% and 1.5%, respectively. The bipolar complication rate was 2.8 times higher than unipolar.

CONCLUSION: The pacemaker patients investigated, living 4 years with their pacemaker on average, had a post-mortem evaluated complication rate of the category "life-threatening" of 3.8%. This result corresponds to an annual complication rate of 0.94% compared with a rate of only 0.39% in an earlier investigation.

Key Words: implanted pacemaker, post-mortem measurement, in situ measurement, dysfunction, complication rate

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 641 9941421; fax: +49 641 9941419. E-mail address: christine.bartsch{at}forens.med.uni-giessen.de (C. Bartsch).


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 EuropaceHome page
M. Novak, P. Dvorak, P. Kamaryt, B. Slana, and J. Lipoldova
Autopsy and clinical context in deceased patients with implanted pacemakers and defibrillators: intracardiac findings near their leads and electrodes
Europace, November 1, 2009; 11(11): 1510 - 1516.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.