What manufacturer is best

My 67 yr old dad had a valve replacement 4 months ago and the surgery went great until he had HIT from the heparin which then triggered a stroke. After spending months recovering and learning to walk again he was finally starting to feel like he might get his life back. Then a week ago he had stage 3 heart block episode and had to have CPR administered and got a temp pacemaker. He is now scheduled for permanent pacemaker surgery on Tuesday. Although risks of pacemakers are low, my dad has been part of the less than 1% lately with medical interactions. He does have latex allergy and has had some medication reactions recently. So my question is what is the best manufacturer of pacemakers and which one has least complications. Any suggestions?? His doc says they are all reputable and about the same but need more opinions. 

3 Comments

They are all reliable

by Going Forward - 2018-09-22 18:34:57

I the deciding factor is what features the EP thinks would be best for your Dad and which company he is most familiar working with. Each company has different models that handle the job in slightly different ways. 

the ARE all reputable and about the same

by Tracey_E - 2018-09-23 09:11:33

His doctor is correct, you can't go wrong with any of them. There are only a small handful to choose from and most doctors have one or two they prefer to work with. Recalls are extremely rare, malfunction is virtually unheard of.There are some minor differences in how they handle rate response, the feature that gets your rate up for you if it doesn't go up on exertion on its own. It doesn't sound like that's an issue for your dad, partially because it's not  usually an issue with heart block and partially because it's mostly used for strenuous activity. 

You want the one his doctor knows and likes best, because he's the one who will be programming it. 

ditto

by dwelch - 2018-09-28 03:04:13

ditto to what TraceyE said.  The few major brands are all as good as one another.  Some docs like one brand and stick with it.  My doc spreads them around if there is that rare recall then not all of the patients are affected.  They should all have a range of products, but are not identical as mentioned above. Find a doc you trust and trust the doc you found.  Let them pick the device.  Personally I have had medtronic, st jude and boston scientific devices thus far.  Have medtronic, guidant leads and I think the newest one is a boston scientific (one medtronic broke so I have three active leads and are three different brands and not bothered in the least by that fact).

Particularly what was said above, you want the one the doc likes best or that practice likes best.  You dont want to be the only patient with the weird one, they have to pull out the strange programmer once a year, nobody knows how to run it, does it need a firmware upgrade, etc.  You want the one they install every day, they program and interrogate every day, etc.  Even if that brand just had one of the rare recalls...Let the doc decide that risk.  Find a doc you trust and trust the doc you found.

 

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