Clinical Analysis of 110 Postoperative Deaths of the Patients with Permanent Implantable Pacemaker

During 14 years follow up of 754 patients received permanent cardiac pacemaker (PM) implantation, 110 cases have died. In this paper, the cause of death of them was clinically analyzed. The death to senility was most frequent, in 31 cases out of 110 deaths (28.2%), and then heart failure in 19 cases (17.3%), cerebrovascular disease in 16 cases (14.5%), sudden death in 14 cases (12.7%), malignancy in 7 cases (6.4%), acute myocardial infarction in 7 cases (6.4%), severe infectious disease in 4 cases (3.6%), unknown etiology in 4 cases (3.6%), renal failure and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation Syndrome (DIC) in 2 cases (1.8%), respectively, suicide in one case (0.9%).
Cause of death by underlying disease was rather characteristic. Senility was frequent in the patients with atrioventricular (A-V) block (38.5%), while cerebrovascular disease was highly observed in the patients with Sick Sinus Syndrome (SSS) (28.1%), and heart failure was highly observed in the patients with atrial fibrillation (46.2%). Senility was seen in 44.8% of the patients with coronary arteriosclerosis, cardiac death in 85. 7% of the patients with cardiomyopathy, and in 100.0% of the cases with valvular disease.
The above mentioned fact suggests that cardiovascular check up is most important in postoperative follow up of the patients with PM. In old cases, senility and infection were major cause of death, so guidance concerning to dietary life and periodical health examination against wasting disease is important especially in this group. And, active care for heart failure is also more important in the patients with cardiomyopathy and valvular disease.