100% Pacing

I had a PM check this week and was told that the upper chamber is being paced at 100% and the lower at 40%.  Battery life is approximately 2 years but was told that it may have to be replaced in 6 months or so.  Should I be concerned about the life of the battery since I have no "wiggle room" if it dies.   Next check is in 6 months.

3 Comments

If projected battery life is 2years and they plan to replace it in 6months you should be fine

by crustyg - 2020-06-24 12:07:06

Modern PMs don't just suddenly stop working as the battery voltage drops towards the end of the useful battery life - they start reducing power usage in other areas, perhaps turning off rate response, limiting maxHR etc.

*AND* you may not be completely PM-dependent - your heart may manage some very low rate of pacing without the PM.  You may need to lie down if this happens as your BP will drop and this will affect blood supply to the brain, but you can still survive for some time if your heart can manage 20bpm.

You should be fine.

Battery life

by AgentX86 - 2020-06-24 17:17:30

As Crusty points out, being 100% paced isn't the same thing as being pacemaker dependent. Your heart still beats on its own,  just not fast enough to have a "normal" life. You would survive a complete pacemaker failure but that's not the way they go.

In addition, as time progresses, the time-remaining estimate gets more accurate. They've scheduled you for another check in six months. They're certainly not worried about it and this isn't their first rodeo.

Battery life

by LondonAndy - 2020-06-25 09:09:17

I agree with both comments above, and also even when they say "2 years", this is about when the device would go into "end of life" mode (end of life OF THE PACEMAKER, not you!).  This means it operates in basic mode, for example no "rate response", so it would continue to work for a period after then anyway, but you would not be able to exert as much as the rate response would not activate.

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