Tag Archives: pacemakers

Editors: Burri H, Deharo J-C, Israel C Publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015 ISBN: 978-0-19-872777-4 Price: £59.99 This case-based study guide for implantable device troubleshooting is composed of 70 ‘real-life’ cases involving pacemakers, implantable cardio-defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) devices. It is aimed at all physicians and physiologists involved in the management of patients with implantable devices, and is the first in a series of specialist ‘handbooks’ produced by the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA). As such it particularly geared towards those sitting the EHRA affilia

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Introduction The basis of modern cardiac pacing can be traced to the early nineteenth century, which saw the first hesitant development of cardiac electrostimulation.1,2 The nineteenth century concluded with a flurry of publications3 confirming that the heart could be reliably stimulated both directly, in open-chest dogs and, indirectly, in humans, via large electrodes placed over the praecordial area and on the back. In 1869 external electrical energy applied to the praecordium of a patient with tachycardia resulted in a slowing and regularising of the rhythm, probably the first reported case of external cardioversion.4,5 1871 saw the first