An Artificial Pacemaker is a device that helps control irregular heart rhythms. Irregular in this case meaning, a heart that beats too slow, too fast, or just doesn’t beat in a regular fashion. The pacemaker device is usually implanted in the chest or abdomen. The name for irregular heart rhythms is arrhythmia. There are also 4 different methods to pacing an abnormally beating heart.
1. Percussive Pacing
2. Transcutaneous Pacing
3. Transvenous Pacing
4. Permanent Pacing
Out of all of these methods of pacing only the fourth method is permanent. The rest of the pacemakers are simply there to provide a bridge to the Permanent Pacing. The first two methods are a short bridge to Permanent Pacing while the third, Transvenous Pacing can be removed later without the addition of Permanent Pacing if the heart recovers from its arrhythmia. The Permanent Pacing device is usually made out of titanium since it is relatively inert inside the human body. The battery is usually a Lithium battery that has to be replaced about every fifteen years or so. If I had to choose which Pacemaker is the best I would say Permanent Pacing is the best. The only reason is because the permanent option is the only option that will last for any considerable amount of time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacemakers#Methods_of_pacing
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/pace/pace_whatis.html
1 comment:
I enjoyed the article, but the heart beats in the middle of the post confused me???
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