[Survival time of patients with cardiac pacemakers (author's transl)]

A comparison between the life expectancy of patients with pacemakers and that of a control population of similar structure shows a parallel course, although originally, after a postoperative phase of 2 months, the mortality rate of the patients with pacemakers was higher. Today the results are considerably better. Implantation of pacemakers is one of the greatest cardiological advances in the last 10 years for the effective treatment and prevention of cardiac arrest in atrioventricular block. The significance of this type of therapy becomes understandable if the fact that the mortality of Adams-Stokes attacks used to be about 50% is taken into consideration. In France, about 5000 persons each year have Adams-Stokes attacks.