Epicardial pacing in infants and children: Long term follow up and assessment of prognostic variables

Abstract

From 1978 until 1993, 97 patients younger than 16 years of age, who under¬went an epicardial pacemaker implantation were followed for an avarage of 5.8 years (range 1-15 years). We implanted 171 pacemakers and 163 electrodes in 97 patients. The patients were divided into two groups: patients with complete atrio-venticular (A-V) block after cardiac surgery or with serious ritm disturbance asso¬ciated with structural heart disease underwent cardiac surgery (Group I) and pa¬tients with congenital A-V block or sick sinus syndrome (Group II). Acturial free¬dom from dysfunction of the pace maker at 1 year was 88% (Confidence limits [CL]: 79% to 95%) and at 5 years were 31% (CL: 26% to 33%), respectively in all patients. Reoperation for infection or erosion was seen in 6 patients (6.2%). Our results indicate that, the mordibity is acceptable but relatively higher in our pa¬tients receiving epicardial pacemaker then in patients receiving endocardial pace¬maker reported in the current literature.