Cardiac Pacemakers

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can interrogate and reprogram from outside the patient's body. These refinements have allowed for more physiologic pacing with maintenance of atrioventricular synchrony and cardiac output. There are various types of available today that can be surgically implanted to treat specific arryhythmic disorders in the heart.
Abnormal rhythms in the heart are one of the most frequent causes of heart malfunction, and in most cases necessitate some type of cardiac pacing unit. Cardiac arrhythmias are common in the elderly, in whom age-related physiologic changes often alter the conduction system of the heart. Such changes may remain asymptomatic, or they may progress to syncope, or possibly sudden death. In the event of acute myocardial infarction, arrhythmias are no more frequent in the elderly than in younger subjects; in fact, ventricular premature beats are seen less commonly in patients aged seventy years and older. Age is also not a factor in determining the success of ...

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system, as well as occurrences of fibrosis and hyalinization in the media of the blood vessels supplying the conduction tissue. Any of these age related processes can lead to a disrupted rhythmic and conduction system of the heart.
One type of arrhythmia, bradycardia, normally necessitates the surgical implantation of a pacemaker device. Bradycardia is a circulatory condition in which the myocardium contracts steadily but at a rate of less than sixty contractions a minute. This condition may be normal in some physically fit people, where their pulse may be quite slow. This is because an athlete's heart is considerably stronger and is capable of pumping a larger volume of ...

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