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The cardiac conduction system is an intricate electrical system on which your heart relies for the maintenance of a steady rhythm, ensuring your heart efficiently pumps blood throughout your body. However, when the system malfunctions due to conditions like arrhythmias or heart failure, it can disrupt your heartbeat. That’s where a pacemaker can help.
At Advanced Heart Care Associates, with locations in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, our experienced team provides pacemakers to address irregular heart rhythms and support heart health. We may recommend a pacemaker for you to help:
- Stabilize abnormal heart rhythms
- Maintain a consistent heartbeat
- Synchronize heart chambers for optimal functioning
- Improve overall circulation and energy levels
Here, we explain the details of pacemakers and give you a comprehensive look at what to expect during implantation.
Supporting heart health
Pacemakers offer assistance to people whose hearts beat too slowly, a condition called bradycardia. A slow heartbeat may starve your brain and body of life-giving oxygen, which can trigger a host of symptoms, resulting in your being less active.
A pacemaker, as it works to keep your heartbeat at the right speed, prevents long-term and often debilitating problems, such as feeling fatigued, being lightheaded, feeling dizzy and faint (syncope), and poor endurance during exercise.
On the flip side, a pacemaker can also treat problems that result in a fast heartbeat (tachycardia) or an irregular heartbeat, such as atrial fibrillation.
How a pacemaker works
Pacemakers are battery-operated electronic devices that connect to your heart with leads to regulate your heartbeat.
Your pacemaker is adjustable, and we program its discharge rate to respond to your body’s specific needs. For example, if the pulse generator senses a drop in your heart rate, it sends electrical impulse signals to your heart at a steady rate through the pacing leads.
When your heartbeat is normal, your pacemaker idles and won’t emit signals. However, its built-in sensor knows when your body moves and your breathing rate gets faster. When it detects these changes, it increases the discharge rate of the electrical impulse.
Pacemaker implantation
Pacemaker implantation is a routine procedure that typically only requires a local anesthetic and IV sedation, which means you’ll be awake but won’t feel pain.
There are three types of pacemaker implantation approaches:
- Catheter-based
- Transvenous
- Epicardial
Our surgical approach depends on several variables. First, we consider which type of pacemaker you need:
- Single chamber
- Dual chamber
- Biventricular
Then, we take into account the number of pacing leads your pacemaker has, which corresponds to the number of heart chambers connecting to the leads.
Finally, your specific heart condition influences which procedure is best for you.
The most common method of pacemaker implantation is transvenous, which involves inserting the device through a vein. It’s a routine, three-step process:
1. Small incision
Our veteran cardiologist makes a small incision under your collarbone (typically on the left side) to gain access to a vein near your heart.
2. Thread the leads
Using fluoroscopy, which is a special type of live X-ray, we thread the pacing lead(s) through the vein and attach them to the corresponding area(s) on your heart.
3. Place the device
Lastly, we create a pocket between your muscle and skin, attach the pacing leads to your pacemaker, and insert it into that pocket.
This transvenous pacemaker implantation can take approximately two to five hours to complete, depending on how many pacing leads we use. Afterward, you stay in the hospital overnight so that we can ensure the device is working properly and programmed to meet your needs.
After pacemaker surgery
Once your pacemaker is nestled into place and running smoothly, we may prescribe medication to regulate your heartbeat.
Apart from avoiding heavy lifting and exercising strenuously for six weeks, you should be able to live life normally after your surgery.
Following your surgery, it’s likely that you’ll be aware of the placement of the pulse generator portion of your pacemaker. It will be just beneath your skin near your collarbone. Once the device has settled into place, after about eight weeks, most people no longer notice it.
Learn more about what you can expect during your pacemaker implantation procedure by calling us at Advanced Heart Care Associates today. You can also use our easy online scheduler to book an appointment at your convenience.