Transcutaneous pacemaker use in a large hospital.
For an eight-month period temporary transcutaneous and transvenous pacemaker use was analyzed in a 602-bed hospital which had readily available fluoroscopy. Twenty-four patients were treated with transcutaneous pacemaker; 23 of these were treated for asystole during cardiac arrest. The only patient not suffering cardiac arrest could not tolerate the transcutaneous pacemaker because of pain. Two of these 23 patients were treated early in the arrest with successful resuscitation. They became conscious and were able to tolerate the pacemaker well. Most of the other patients were treated late in the arrest with little chance of any therapy being successful. Only four of these 21 patients were treated within 15 minutes of the onset of cardiac arrest. During the same time span, 23 patients received transvenous temporary pacemakers. Only four of this group had suffered cardiac arrest before pacing. We conclude that: transcutaneous pacing can be successful but we did not find it useful when used late in a cardiac arrest; transvenous pacing seemed the approach most often chosen for the non-arrest situation.
Noe
R
R
Cockrell
W
W
Moses
H W
HW
Dove
J T
JT
Batchelder
J E
JE
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000628:therapy*; D001919:Bradycardia / Q000628:therapy; D003422:Critical Care; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004630:Emergencies; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000628:therapy*; D006327:Heart Block / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial; D012151:Resuscitation; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000628:therapy