Single Centre Experience: Bleeding Complications after Permanent Pacemaker Implantation in Patients on Anticoagulant Treatment

follow-up was conducted at three monthly intervals. All device-delivered shocks and device treated ventricular arrhythmias (VA) were recorded and analysed. Inappropriate shocks were defined as any shock delivered in the absence of a sustained VA. The use of long detects, ATP, lead integrity alert and homemonitoring was encouraged in all patients. Results: 1076 patients with 4056 patient-years of followup were enrolled. 4.1% of patients per year experienced a shock. Of these 411 shocks in 106 patients were appropriate shocks (76%) and 143 shocks in 59 patients were inappropriate shocks (24%). Inappropriate shocks were due to atrial fibrillation in 55%, supraventricular tachycardia/sinus tachycardia in 12% and noise/over-sensing in 33%. During the study period therewas a significant increase in all treatedVAbut a significant reduction in both inappropriate and appropriate shocks. The ratio of appropriate to inappropriate shocks did not change significantly. The predictors of any shock were secondary prevention and symptomatic heart failure. The only predictor of inappropriate shocks was implant for primary electrical disease. Conclusions: Compared to international registries, our local experience suggests that shock reduction can be achieved with attention to device programming and p