Yes. Because of the changes in the heart that occur with heart failure, patients with heart failure may experience irregular heartbeats also known as arrhythmias.
A pace-maker can help manage these irregular heart rhythms when medicines no longer work. Pacemakers and their more modern cousins called implantable cardiac devices are considered a routine and effective treatment for some heart failure patients.
Pacemakers used to control heart rhythm have been around for more than 40 years. A pacemaker is a small device, run by a battery, that helps the heart beat in a regular rhythm. Pacemakers can help pace the heart in cases of slow heart rate, fast and slow heart rate, or a (complete) blockage in the heart’s electrical system.
A pacemaker can pace the heart’s upper chambers (the atria), the lower chambers (the ventricles), or both. Pacemakers may also be used to stop the heart from triggering impulses or from sending extra impulses.
All pacemakers have two components. These are a pulse generator and leads. The pulse generator is a battery and a small computer that are connected to the heart via wires called leads. When the leads are connected, the computer monitors the heart’s beat. When the heart slows down, the computer uses the battery to send a very small electrical pulse down the leads, which stimulates the heart to beat at a normal pace.
In the past, pacemakers had limited functions and were used only to speed up slowly beating hearts. The more sophisticated pacemakers of today can control the beating of each chamber of the heart or even shock the heart back to a normal rhythm when it has entered into a dangerous or even fatal type of arrhythmia.
With recent advances in computer miniaturization, longer lasting batteries, and an improved understanding of how the heart controls its rhythm, doctors and engineers have produced electronic marvels that both ex-tend life and improve its quality.
The size of the devices varies, depending on what each one does. Some are about the size of a wristwatch. The largest is smaller than a deck of cards. Like the simple pacemakers, doctors place these implantable devices under the skin of the upper chest. These implantable cardiac devices are now commonly used and have helped millions of patients.
Cardiac resynchronization by biventricular pace-maker. For some individuals, stimulating both the right and left ventricles improves the heart’s ability to contract with more force, thereby improving symptoms and increasing the length of time they are able to exercise.
A biventricular pacemaker affects both left and right chambers and may be beneficial for some of the approximately one quarter to one half of heart failure patients whose two ventricles do not beat in synchrony.
You may be a candidate for this special pacemaker if your electrocardiogram and echocardiogram reveal specific characteristics, and you are still having symptoms of heart failure although you’re receiving optimal medical therapy.
In a 2002 study, one of these pacemakers was demonstrated to cut the risk of being rehospital-ized for worsening heart failure in half. Some patients who used this type of device were taken off the trans-plant waiting list. This pacemaker also will help people with slow heart rates.