[An indication for a permanent pacemaker : digitialis therapy for cardiac failure with disturbed atrioventricular...

In twenty patients with advanced heart disease with severe cardiac failure and the presence of conduction disturbances before digitalis therapy, but in whom such disturbances were worsened or revealed by the treatment, it was necessary to insert a permanent pacemaker in order to make effective long term digitalisation possible without the risk of excessive bradycardia or pauses due to worsening of atrioventricular block. Six patients died within a period of 9 days to 34 months after insertion of the pacemaker, two were lost from sight, and the other 12 were followed-up regularly for an average period of 20 months, their condition remaining stationary and, in general, satisfactory.