title: The use of the balloon-tipped floating catheter in temporary transvenous cardiac pacing.
abstract: The effectiveness and safety of balloon-tipped, flow guided, electrodes for ventricular pacing as opposed to the fluoroscopy-guided semi-rigid bipolar electrodes have never been compared in a controlled study. A prospective study was therefore undertaken to compare both techniques in semi-elective and emergency procedures. Flow guided electrodes were inserted in 67 patients (group A) and semi-rigid electrodes in 44 patients (group B). The results of group A were judged to be superior to those of group B in four aspects: a) shorter time (6'45" vs. 13'30", p less than 0.0005); b) lower incidence of catheter displacement (13.4 vs. 32.0 percent, p less than 0.05); c) longer interval of time between implantation and catheter displacement (4.4 vs. 1.9 days, p less than 0.0005); d) lower incidence of serious ventricular arrhythmias during insertion (1.5 vs. 20.4 percent, p less than 0.005). Threshold at insertion was not significantly different (0.6 +/- 0.3 vs 0.7 +/- 0.2 milliampere). The superiority of flow-guided electrodes over fluoroscopy-guided electrodes persisted in the comparison of semielective insertions in groups A and B. We conclude that the flow-guided insertion technique is safer, more expeditious and more stable than the fluoroscopy-guided technique in semi-elective as well as in emergency insertions.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000628:therapy*; D002404:Catheterization / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004566:Electrodes / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial / Q000592:standards*; D011446:Prospective Studies