Comparison between ventricular inhibited pacing and physiologic pacing in sick sinus syndrome

Abstract

Sick sinus syndrome (SSS) causes not only infrequent cardiac dysfunction but also systemic complication, and pacemaker implantation has been applied to prevent such an episode. Several kinds of pacemakers have been available for clinical use. However, the selection of these pacemakers has been controversial depending on the severity and character of the conduction system impairment accompanying SSS. We have already reported the long-term follow-up results in patients with SSS who had not had a pacemaker or had implanted pacemakers of various modes. 1 In that report, we found that the ventricular inhibited paced (VVI) group had significantly more complications and a greater cardiothoracic ratio after pacing in the follow-up period than the physiologically paced groups. We concluded that the decision to use VVI pacing needed to be carefully assessed in patients with SSS, and that physiologic pacing is more highly recommended. However, the study population in that report was small and the follow-up period was short. In this article, we report the results of our further study with a larger population and longer follow-up.