All issues > Volume 35(7); 1992

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1992;35(7):933-941. Published online July 15, 1992.

Permanent Epicardial Pacing in Pediatric Patients

I Seok IS Kang¹, Chung Il CI Noh¹, Jung Yun JY Choi¹, Yong Soo YS Yun¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

From September 1982 to July 1991, 40 infants and children aged 3 days to 13 years(mean 3.1 years) underwent implantation of 45 cardiac pacemakers using epicardial leads(40 primary implants, 5 re-implants). Nineteen patients required pacing for surgically acquired heart block, 1 for surgically acquired sinus node dysfunction, 11 for congenital complete atrio-ventricular(AV) block, 7 for nonsurgical sinus node dysfunction, and 2 for nonsurgically acquired complete atrio-ventricular(AV) block. Only 6 of 40 patients had no associated cardiac anomalies. Of 40 primary implantations, 2 were AAI pacing, 29, VVI pacing, and 9, DDD pacing. Four patients required 5 re-implantations because of battery depletion, lead fracture, insulation break, exit block, and adaptor problem in 1 each. Early complications after pacemaker implantation were wound infection (4), postoperative lung poroblems(4), chylothorax (2), septicemia(2), postpericardiotomy syndrome(2). Four patients died of underlying cardiac defects in 3 and unknown cause in 1. Our results reveal that pacemaker implantation using epicardial approach is still good method in spite of minor complications.

Keywords :Permanent cardiac pacemaker, Children