ABSTRACT
At he previous Wordl Symposium (1991) a study of 1002 patients undergoing implantation of the Phymos VDD pacing system (MEDICO - Italy), provided with an atrial dipole of 3 cm, in 60 European centres was presented. Follow-up of these patients has been continued to assess the reliability of the system and to investigate the natural history of the conduction disorder over a mean period of 5 year. Of 924 patients with data vailable, after a mean follow-up of 50.3 months, 795 of 904 (87.9 por cento) we still paced satisfactorily in VDD mode. Problems caused by arrhytmias were few: atrial fibrillation 5 por cento, sinus bradycardia 1 por cento. The findings demonstrated that the VDD mode remaisn approprieate in the great majority of patients with atrioventricular block and that the Phymos system provides reliable physiological pacing in the long term.
