Pacemaker Failure Induced by Radiotherapy

It is well documented that radiation therapy can have significant transitory and permanent effects on the function of cardiac pacemakers. In this study 18 multiprogrammable pacemakers were tested to establish any pattern by which these pacemakers are affected. The results confirm previous predictions on how pacemakers are damaged. The damage could be divided essentially into three types: (1) temporary change to interference or safety mode pacing lasting for the duration of the irradiation only; (2) change to interference mode pacing—from which recovery may occur after reprogramming the pacemaker; and (3) severe damage; in this case the pacemaker stops generating pulses. Recovery from this may occur a long time after the end of the treatment, but this recovery is mostly incomplete and the pacemaker cannot be used reliably thereafter. Therefore it is essential that patients with implanted pacemakers undergoing radiation therapy, should be monitored closely during the course of the treatment and for a few weeks thereafter.

[1]  M. Pitkänen,et al.  The influence of electromagnetic interference and ionizing radiation on cardiac pacemakers. , 1990, Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al].

[2]  M. Mutter,et al.  Pacemaker failure associated with therapeutic radiation. , 1988, The American journal of emergency medicine.

[3]  J. Venselaar,et al.  Radiation Damage to Pacemakers from Radiotherapy , 1987, Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE.

[4]  J. Venselaar.  The effects of ionizing radiation on eight cardiac pacemakers and the influence of electromagnetic interference from two linear accelerators. , 1985, Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

[5]  J. Schwade,et al.  Radiation induced failures of complementary metal oxide semiconductor containing pacemakers: a potentially lethal complication. , 1984, International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics.

[6]  K. Maxted.  The effect of therapeutic x-radiation on a sample of pacemaker generators. , 1984, Physics in medicine and biology.

[7]  A. Pourhamidi.  Radiation effect on implanted pacemakers. , 1983, Chest.

[8]  T. Quertermous,et al.  Pacemaker failure resulting from radiation damage. , 1983, Radiology.

[9]  J. Niederer,et al.  Damaging Effect of Therapeutic Radiation on Programmable Pacemakers , 1982, Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE.

[10]  F. Marcus,et al.  Pacemaker Failure Due to Radiation Therapy , 1982, Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE.

[11]  N. Blamires,et al.  X‐ray Effects on Pacemaker Type Circuits , 1982, Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE.

[12]  Albert J. Matteucci,et al.  Radiation Testing Complementary (Symmetry) Metal Oxide Semi-Conductor (CMOS) Arrays for Satellites , 1977, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.