Complications of Permanent Transvenous Pacing

Permanent cardiac pacing, particularly by the relatively simple and safe transvenous method, must rank as one of the great cardiologic advances of the 20th century, with a record of thousands of lives saved and more thousands of patients relieved of symptoms previously beyond the reach of medical therapy. It would be wrong, however, to pretend that the procedure was innocuous; permanent implantation of a foreign body within the heart must always entail some risk, and before recommending or implementing permanent pacing, the physician must know what complications may arise and how likely they are to occur.Data recorded in the . . .