The Human Heart is one of the most vital organs of the body as it is responsible for pumping blood all throughout the body.
The heart starts pumping blood after four weeks of the formation of the fetus in the mother’s womb. Maintaining the health of the heart is also very important, but due to some reasons such as Hypertension or High Blood Pressure, the heart can become weak, and it can eventually this might lead to Heart Failure.
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Pacemaker For Heart Failure
There are some symptoms that can indicate the failure of the heart. These symptoms include chest pain, fainting, or severe weakness because of the improper flow of blood by the heart, irregular heartbeat of the heart which can also cause shortness of breath.
When such symptoms occur one must visit the doctor who can give the correct treatment to the patient. There can be different treatments for the disease of heart failure and one of them is the pacemaker. The further discussion is related to the working and importance of pacemakers to cure heart failure to an extent.
A pacemaker is generally used to treat the rhythmic insufficiency of the heart by Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT). When irregularities occur in the contraction of the cardiac muscles, an artificial Pacemaker can be used to treat those irregularities.
A pacemaker can slow down the process of heart failure. The pacemaker is not only used to treat the rhythmic irregularities caused by heart failure but also to cure the bradycardia.
Bradycardia is another problematic heart condition that causes irregularity in the rhythmic contraction of the heart. You must be familiar with the club-dub sound of the heart.
When this sound is observed for a normal non-diseased heart, then a clear distinction can be derived between both sounds. But, in a diseased heart on the verge of failure, the distinction between club-dub sound cannot be made. This is one of the clear indications of heart failure.
The pacemaker is the best solution to treat heart failure, which can give the patient a longer life and keep them out of hospital bed. Although, the patient still needs medicines all throughout his life to subside the symptoms of the disease.
The patient also needs to follow a healthy lifestyle to avoid any other damages in the future. A constant must be kept on the number of drinks that one takes, eating healthy food, and taking enough supplements. Avoiding habits of drinking or consuming any kind of alcohol and smoking should be out of bounds. This will ensure the proper functioning of the heart along with the pacemaker.
HOW DOES THE PACEMAKER WORK?
When there is a condition of heart failure, the ventricles or the lower chambers of the heart have a thick layer of muscles. These muscles slowly or gradually can lose the power of contraction and are not able to pump the blood as per the requirement of the body.
There are times when the ventricular muscles do not contract at all, and the pumping of blood is not successful. Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy or CRT uses the pacemaker called the biventricular pacemaker which stimulates the muscles of the heart using electrical impulses.
These electrical impulses are triggered by the pacemaker which contracts the muscles of the heart and does the sufficient pumping of blood to the body.
The pacemaker contains three thin wires, called leads. These thin wires carry the electric impulses to the muscles. These leads are present in the different chambers of the heart.
If there is any arrhythmic traction of the heart, then this can be cured by the pacemaker as it sends painless signals to the muscles through the leads. The pacemakers can also speed up the pace of the heart if the heart is beating slowly. So, the pacemaker justifies its name and makes the pace of the heart correct.
HOW IS THE PACEMAKER PLACED?
The pacemaker is placed inside the chest by performing very minor surgery. This is not open-heart surgery, so minor anesthesia would suffice to perform the surgery.
The surgery to place the pacemaker in the body can take up to 2-3 hours of time. The pacemaker has batteries that need to be changed after a few years and that again requires a minor surgical performance. The pacemaker can be physically examined at it is placed not much beneath the skin surface.
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