Effects of increasing age onto procedural parameters in pacemaker implantation: results of an obligatory external quality control program.

AIMS: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of increasing patients' age onto procedural parameters, especially complications, during primary pacemaker implantation, evaluating the database of the Institute of Quality Assurance Hessen in the federal state of Hessen, Germany. METHODS AND
RESULTS: The database of the obligatory external quality control program was evaluated retrospectively for the years 2003-2006. A total of 17 826 patients undergoing stationary primary pacemaker implantation have been registered in 72 centres. In single-chamber implants, the implant duration is shortest in non-agenarians. For dual-chamber implants, the implant duration shortens with increasing age. Thus, as well as fluoroscopy time is significantly shorter in the oldest patients. Atrial and ventricular pacing thresholds as well as R-wave amplitudes do not change with age. P-wave amplitudes showed a small but steady decline with increasing ages. Complications do not increase with advanced age.
CONCLUSION: In this large-scale real-life patient cohort of primary stationary pacemaker implantation, increasing age resulted only in reduced P-wave amplitudes. Higher age was not associated with an increased risk of complications. Thus, pacemaker implantations in the elderly can be performed with the same reliability as in younger patients.