Bi-Ventricular Pacemakers

I just got a Bi-V pm a month ago. Any information on them would be great. Lots of postings on the standard pm from what I can tell. Forgive the ignorance, but what is a dual chamber pm? A little info on pm terms would be great. Thank you

AMY

2 Comments

BiV Pacemakers

by BABlocker - 2007-04-06 03:04:24

Amy,
I also have a BiV Pacemaker after AV Node ablation in August of 2005.
The Biventricular pacemaker has 3 leads as you probably already know. It has dual chamber capabilities, meaning that it can pace both the right atria and right ventricle, and it synchronizes/paces both the right and left ventricles to help the heart pump more effectively for those with congestive heart failure, or in my case, to prevent cardiomyopathy/CHF that can occur over the longer haul when pacing only the right ventricle in pacemaker dependent individual in particular (such as myself).

Many people state that they have a decrease in heart failure symptoms after having a BiV PM installed, as it prevents the septal wall between ventricles from "beating to it's own drummer", which causes the right and left ventricles to beat out of sync with one another. This in turn causes left ventricular hypertrophy/dysfunction, which creates the symptoms associated with Congestive Heart Failure, including, fluid/lung congestion, shortness of breath, exercise intolerance and lowered ejection fraction.

Feel free to email me for more information and I would be glad to share what I have learned in the 19 months since my implantation.

thank you

by amymarla - 2007-04-06 06:04:52

If you don't mind I have a couple of questions for you. Aren't all pacemakers dual chambers? Is an ICD a dual chamber? Are there other types?

Also how much discomfort should I be in and how long? It appears that this one may have been put in to close to my arm pit muscle. I am having trouble moving my arm, especially across my body. I was told it may have to moved, another sugerical procedure. So I am wondering what the recovery would be like this time once it is put in correctly?

AMY

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Hi, I am 47 and have had a pacemaker for 7 months and I’m doing great with it.