Transcutaneous pacing: a life saviour

 Doukky Rand colleagues acknowledged that Transcutaneous Cardiac Pacing is a temporary method of pacing which may be indicated in patients with symptoms of severe or hemodynamically unstable bradyarrhythmias. It is found to be extremely helpful in patients with reversible or transient conditions, such as digoxin toxicity and in atrioventricular block in the case of inferior wall myocardial infarction, or when transvenous pacing is not available or there are high chances of complications. Widened QRS complex indicates successful attempt followed by a distinct ST segment and broad T wave. The hemodynamic response to pacing is to be confirmed by the assessment of patient’s arterial pulse waveforms. Trancutaneous pacing is a boon to manage and treat intra op dangerous bradycardia.

Pacing Indications and Modes in Bradyarrhythmia Patients: Gender Related Differences.

Gender differences are increasingly recognized in cardiology. It is also well known that women have higher complications and a higher mortality related to coronary procedures. In arrhythmias, gender-specific variations in the electrophysiological structure of the heart or hormonal effects may explain some of the gender differences. The aim of this study was to evaluate gender differences according to their risk factors, indications and modes of pacing. A total of 267 patients who had pacemaker implantation for bradyarrhythmia indications were enrolled in our study. A pre-designed questionnaire was filled to record their baseline characteristics, clinical indications and mode of pacing. Out of 267 patients 190 were male and 77 were female. Data was analyzed with SPSS 16.0 software (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA) The pacemaker implantation requirement was 31% significantly lower among males compared with females who were hypertensive (RR=0.69, 95%CI=0.58-0.82, p=0.0001) and 1.57 times (RR=1.57, 95%CI=1.32-1.87, p=0.0001) significantly higher among male patients than females who were the tobacco user in any form. The single chamber requirement was 1.41 times significantly (RR=1.41, 95%CI=1.16-1.71, p=0.0001) higher in males than females. The risk analysis showed that complete heart blockage (p= 0.02) and sick sinus syndrome (p= 0.01) were significantly higher in males as compared with females. In conclusion male patients had more CHB, sick sinus syndrome and syncope as primary pacemaker indication, compared with female patients. Smoking was the most prominent risk factor in male and hypertension in female and most importantly there were significant gender differences in indications leading to pacing.