Pacemaker and Surgical Site Infection: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of pacemakers and surgical site infections. It begins with a description of pacemakers as medical devices used to regulate heartbeats in patients with arrhythmias, detailing the increasing prevalence of pacemaker implantation. The report then explores the causes of irregular heartbeats, including hypertension and stress, and explains how pacemakers are used to address these issues. It also addresses surgical site infections, outlining the common pathogens involved, such as Staphylococcus aureus, and the associated signs and symptoms, including fever and pain. The report further discusses the types of patients who require pacemakers, focusing on those with bradycardia and heart failure. It details treatment options, including device removal and antibacterial therapy, and highlights lifestyle modifications necessary for patients with pacemakers, such as avoiding electrical devices. Finally, the report concludes by emphasizing the importance of early intervention and treatment of surgical site infections to prevent complications and improve patient outcomes. The report includes references to support its findings.

Running head: PACEMAKER
PACEMAKER
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

2
PACEMAKER
Introduction:
A pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin in the chest of the patient to help
the patient in controlling the heartbeat (Wang et al.). The patients who are suffering from
irregular heartbeat or arrhythmias are usually provided with a pacemaker. The patients after
implantation of pacemaker feel comfortable within 24 hours however, a significant number of
people experience surgical site infection because of the pacemaker. This paper will provide a
description of pacemaker and surgical site infection, cause, signs and symptoms, treatment and
lifestyle modification in the following paragraph.
Description:
The pacemaker is a medical device which generates electrical impulses delivered by the
electrodes for contracting the heart muscles and regulate the electrical conduction system of the
heart (Conti and Khaykin). The primary purpose of this device is to maintain a normal heart
rate. The prevalence of pacemaker Implantation in Canada has been increasing frequently.
While in 2006, 14, 375 patients experienced implantation of a pacemaker, in 2012, the number of
patients experienced increased to 16,532 (Krahn et al. ). Hence, the high prevalence of the
cardiovascular disease is required to reduce for addressing this issue (Conti and Khaykin).
However, surgical infection is usually observed in patients who have experienced the
implantation and it is termed as endocarditis.
Cause:
Usually, patients who are at high risk of experiencing heart failure and have
arrhythmias are provided with pacemakers. For a normal individual, 60 to 100 beats per minute
is considered as normal heart rate but for patients with an irregular heartbeat, it is either below 60

3
PACEMAKER
or above 100 (Mansour et al.). In interruption of the electric pulses because of hypertension,
mental stress, heart disease and coffee consumption defined as arrhythmias and they are
supported with pacemakers (Conti and Khaykin). Aseptic impanation of pacemaker can cause
transmission of bacteria and cause surgical site infection. Coagulase-negative staphylococci,
especially Staphylococcus aureus and brucella are the common pathogens that causes the
infection (Kanji and Saxinger).
Signs and symptoms:
The signs and symptoms of the requirement of a pacemaker include dysphonia, pre-
syncope, pedal edema, elevated, neck vain (Krahn et al. ). On the other hand, the patients who
are experience surgical site infection for pacemakers, the signs and symptoms include low-grade
fever, night sweats, and weightless, inflammation, nausea, pain at the implant site (Conti and
Khaykin).. Hence, appropriate intervention is required to design for managing the surgical site
infection.
Types of patients:
As discussed above patients with arrhythmias, especially bradycardia and patients who
are at high risk of experiencing heart failure usually require the artificial pacemaker implantation
to maintain normal heartbeats and these patients are the one who experiences surgical site
infection because of aseptic handling of surgery (Krahn et al. ). If this infection is left
untreated then can be fatal as it can cause septicemia.
Treatment:

4
PACEMAKER
The lifestyle modification for pacemaker includes keeping a safe distance from any
electrical device such as cellphone, airport metal detector.
The treatments of the surgical site infection include the complete removal of the
implanted device as well as antibacterial therapy (Krahn et al. ).
Conclusion:
Thus it can be concluded that a pacemaker is a small device placed under the skin in the
chest of the patient to help the patient in controlling the heartbeat. The patient may experience
infection which attacks heart valves and then spread to the brain and lungs through the
bloodstream. The antibacterial therapy is the only treatment for it.

5
PACEMAKER
References:
Conti, Sergio, and Yaariv Khaykin. "Pacemaker implantation in a challenging anatomy: isolated
persistent left superior vena cava and azygos continuation of interrupted inferior vena
cava." Clinical case reports 6.4 (2018): 709-711.
Kanji, Jamil N., and Lynora Saxinger. "Brucella infection at cardiac pacemaker site in a patient
who had consumed raw caribou meat in Northern Canada." Canadian Medical Association.
Journal 190.37 (2018): E1108-E1110.
Krahn, A. D., et al. "pacemaker implant rates: a national perspective." Canadian Journal of
Cardiology30.10 (2014): S294-S295.
Mansour, Fadi, Isabelle Greiss, and Paul Khairy. "Pitfalls of pacemaker detection of ventricular
high-rate events." HeartRhythm case reports 4.4 (2018): 163-165.
Wang, Chang, et al. "Treating Lyme carditis high‐degree AV block using a temporary–
permanent pacemaker." Annals of Noninvasive Electrocardiology 24.3 (2019): e12599.