Dual Chamber PM?

My mother's battery ran out 3 times now and she is scheduled for her fourth one the coming Monday. She has a epicardial lead and her pace maker is placed in her abdomen. Apparently she also has a congenital heart defect (Inverted ventricles with transposition of the great vessels which is a rare cardiac anomaly comprising less than 1% of liveborn congenital heart defects.)

What is the most advanced pacemaker available in the market and is dual chamber multi sensor pacemaker an option for such heart defect. Doc says these dual chamber PM dont work very well and this cannot be used for my mom who has this heart condition. Anyone else have this experience?

Please help me find an answer.

Thank you

Yasmin
effathyasmin@gmail.com

2 Comments

dual chamber

by sugar - 2010-07-18 09:07:38

Hi Yasmin,

I have one called the Medtronics which is made in Minnesota and is supposed to be the top of the line so far. New things are always coming out. I had mine put in in Nov. and I am doing well with it. Not every dr. uses the same device - I would only go to a dr. that uses the most up-to-date equipment and it also depends on the problem so the dr. may choose something different. My money is on the Medtronics for my dual pm.
Hope this little info can help.
Sugar/Patty

Dual Ventricular

by TLRun - 2010-07-19 12:07:58

Hi Yasmin:

I have dual chamber (ventricular) pacemaker. Mine is from St. Judes. My PM has three leads into my heart and paces 90 percent of the time, it also has multi sensing ability to crank up my heart when very active. I run daily. What I was told and read about these types of pacemakers is that they have about a maximum of 4 years of battery life....yes, we are the lucky ones....really. Unlike other people depending on their pacemaker, they can get up to 8 years out of their battery life. These are rough estimates and all depends on the condition being treated. But dual chamber pacemakers take alot of power. So, I have had mine about a year now with about 3 years of battery power left. I am 52 and hopefully I will have many more PMs to come. I think the technology will be radically different in 10 years and the size of PMs will be much smaller. Also, I have read on new technology for batteries. Like everything, they will evolved and just get better and better. I think the first person who ever had a pacemaker was tethered to a huge machine and this was just 50 years ago or so. So, we have come a long way. I hope this helps.

Tom

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The experience of having a couple of lengths of wire fed into your heart muscle and an electronic 'box' tucked under the skin is not an insignificant event, but you will survive.