Implantation of 500 consecutive cardiac pacemakers in the electrophysiology laboratory

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to examine the practice of cardiac bradycardia pacing in an electrophysiology laboratory and to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pacemaker implantation by cardiologists in this setting.

METHODS AND RESULTS
We evaluated a consecutive series of the first 500 permanent pacemakers (mean age of patients: 74 +/- 14 years) implanted entirely in the electrophysiology laboratory at our institution. All procedures were performed by two cardiologists. Three-hundred and four patients (60.8%) received a dual-chamber device. After 3 months of follow-up, procedure-related complications occurred in 19 patients (3.8%). The most frequent complication was lead dislodgement (1.4%). There were 2 postoperative infections (0.4%). The mean time to hospital discharge after the implant was 2.9 +/- 1.6 days.

CONCLUSIONS
These results show that permanent pacemaker implantation may be successfully carried out by cardiologists in the electrophysiology laboratory with a low complication rate. Atrial lead dislodgement seems to be the most frequent complication in centres with a high proportion of dual-chamber pacemaker implantations.

CITA DEL ARTÍCULO Acta Cardiol. 1999 Dec;54(6):339-43