Change leads at 100% pacing

• by Theknotguy
• 2013-12-26 04:12:17
• Batteries & Leads
• 1455 views
• 2 comments

I can't find the post. One member was asking about changing the PM while being 100% pacing. How do they do that? Obviously you wouldn't want to be lying there slowly dying while the cardiologist takes his/her sweet time to change out the PM. Good question!

Talked to people at my rehab session. Hey, how do you handle the situation when the person is 100% paced.

"Good question." she responded. #1 rule is to keep the heart functioning so they have people watching to make sure it doesn't stop. Soooo....

1) Check to see if heart can keep beating without
PM. If so, proceed to replacement.

2) If heart can't keep beating without some external help, go to external PM to keep heart beating while they change out PM.

3) If the situation is iffy, set up external help so if heart goes wonky, they can turn on external while replacing PM.

4) Swap out PM, check to make sure heart is still beating OK before removing external PM. Keep the heart beating!

Main goal is to keep heart beating no matter what. Obviously it's not good for advertising if people needing PM's die during replacement procedures. Insurance rates go through the
roof and the doctor doesn't get to buy his dream yacht.

Hope the person who posted the question reads this. Thanks for asking the question because I was able to research and get the question answered for myself.

Theknotguy