Background: Currently there is no evidence to prefer an endocardial or epicardial approach for pacing in pediatric patients. This analysis was aimed at defining the complications of pacemaker implantation in a pediatric population with atrioventricular block according to a strategy of choosing an epicardial system for patients <10 kg and an endocardial system for patients >10 kg.
Methods: This is a retrospective study performed on 27 patients, with and without congenital heart disease, implanted with a permanent pacemaker because of idiopathic or acquired atrioventricular block at our Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Unit of S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna (Italy) between 1981 and 2010. Patients were divided into two groups: 70% of the population (group A) was implanted with an epicardial system, 30% (group B) with an endocardial system.
Results: After a mean follow-up of 14 years (17 ± 8 years for group A, 7 ± 5 years for group B), the most frequent complications were lead failure (44%) and infection (18%). Both were more common in the epicardial system group: lead failure rate 53% in group A vs 25% in group B (p=0.0001); infection rate 26% in group A vs 0% in group B (p=0.0001); rate of system revision or implantation of a new electrode 42% in group A vs 12% in group B (p=0.0001).
Conclusions: The present study demonstrates a high complication rate in patients undergoing an epicardial pacing system implantation. However, in patients <10 kg the epicardial system allows subclavian venous access protection for endocardial system implantation after somatic growth, avoiding high-risk procedures of system revision or lead extraction and subclavian vein occlusion in the long term.