title: Pacemakers: some of the risks and complications you are not warned about.
abstract: Pacemaker technology has advanced rapidly over the last decade. A lot of everyday interference can be regarded as transient. The media tend to cover stories of relatively insignificant transient interference incurred by pacemaker wearers while many manuals gloss over the high risks, some potentially life-threatening. These include the reliability of pacemakers and the use of monopolar diathermy which can generate electromagnetic interference, potentially causing a pacemaker to malfunction.
authors.affiliation: Main Theatres, Lincoln County Hospital, Retford, DN22 OPD.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marsh
mesh_terms: D040421:Cell Phone; D003972:Diathermy; D004560:Electricity / Q000009:adverse effects; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects; D004868:Equipment Failure; D004869:Equipment Safety; D006801:Humans; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000639:trends; D012307:Risk Factors; D012449:Safety; D017751:Safety Management