Pacing in the World Today. World Survey on Cardiac Pacing for the Years 1979 to 1981

Summary

The state of the art of cardiac pacing in the world, in the early ’80s, has been surveyed by the questionnaire technique with the assistance of national contact persons.

Data from 56 countries were collected, concerning over 220,000 new PM implants, nearly 63,000 replacements and over 340,000 patients in follow-up. Of the 5711 implanting centers, the majority use from 50 to 200 PM per year and only 1110 perform prepacing electrophysiological studies. The age of patients at first implant was 12 y in less than 2% of cases and 80 y in up to 2(j% (Sweden). A-V block and sinoatrial disease are still the leading causes for permanent pacing; pacing in tachycardias is becoming relatively more common (3.5% in Australia; 9% in Finland). Lithium batteries are the most common power source today; in some European countries, however, HgZn batteries are still used (88.8% in Czechoslovakia). Multi-programmable generators are used in up to 74.2% of cases in the USA but, in the majority of countries, they represent 0–20% of the units at first implant. Epicardial leads are used in up to 21.8% of cases (Japan), atrial transvenous leads in up to 15.8% (USA); percutaneous insertions of transvenous leads are performed in up to 60% of cases (UK). Death from unknown causes is still an important cause for file closure (34.6% of cases in Austria). Cost of short/long-life PMs has increased in the last few years; still the total cost of pacing per month has decreased up to 40% in the last decade.