chf and pacemaker

if you have a pm can you still have the symptoms of chf.my dr told me no when we discussed about getting a pm,but the last few days have been bad and i felt my pm maker 3 times tonight

3 Comments

You need

by fishfighter - 2012-09-07 07:09:34

A new doctor if that is what he told you. I been having a CRT-D for 1 1/2 years and I am still in CHF and also need a new heart.

Yes

by PacerRep - 2012-09-07 12:09:39

Do you have a dual chamber pacemaker? or do you have the BiV/CRT device? (2 wires or 3 wires?). I don't think I have EVER heard a doctor promise a patient that a device will eliminate symptoms of CHF, are you sure thats what he said? Anyways, a regular pacemaker does not help much with CHF that's where the BiV comes in and only when you have a Left Bundle Branch Block that is aggravating the CHF. In some patients I have seen a downright miracle, completely unexplainable by all logic the improvement they have made. In other cases I see absolutely no improvement, these patients are called "non-responders" in the industry and it effects approx 1/3 of all CRT patients.

You sure can

by ElectricFrank - 2012-09-08 07:09:50

The pacemaker can help improve the efficiency of your heart, and partly overcome CHF, but the truth is your heart is still damaged. Look at it this way. You likely had CHF long before you started having symptoms. As long as your heart could supply the necessary blood flow to support your activities there wouldn't be much in the way of symptoms. Finally the CHF progressed to where symptoms appeared.

The pacemaker may be able to improve the pumping efficiency of your heart by optimizing the timing of the chambers in which case the output of your heart may put you back to some earlier state. If so the symptoms could disappear. It's also possible that your heart timing was already nearly correct in which case the pacer won't help.

If you are feeling bad I would definitely contact the doctor.

best wishes,

frank

You know you're wired when...

You have a $50,000 chest.

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