Indian Journal of Anaesthesia (Jan 2017)

Anaesthetic consideration in patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices scheduled for surgery

  • Murali Chakravarthy,
  • Dattatreya Prabhakumar,
  • Antony George

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/ija.IJA_346_17
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 61, no. 9
pp. 736 – 743

Abstract

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With advances in cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, several newer implantable cardiac devices have become common in the surgical population. Multichamber pacemakers, implanted cardiac defibrillators and ventricular assist devices are frequent in current day practice. Many of the newer implantable cardiac electronic devices are targeted at managing heart failure. While managing such patients for non-cardiac surgeries, specific issues related to equipment characteristics and troubleshooting should be a priority for the anaesthesiologists. There is a possibility of malfunction of the devices resulting in catastrophic outcomes. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the pathophysiology, device characteristics and troubleshooting before embarking on anaesthetising patients with implantable cardiac electronic devices.

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