[Cardiac pacing during open heart surgery (author's transl)].

: Cardiac pacing by means of temporary wires inserted during open heart surgery is an established useful adjunct to post-operative care. Optimal rate can be imposed to the heart with transiently depressed function, arrhythmias can be suppressed by overdriving and atrioventricular synchronization sometimes can be reestablished, with a resulting improvement of cardiac output. We routinely insert wires on the right ventricle, and on the right atrium wherever excitable. Wires have been inserted in 383 consecutive patients, significantly contributing to the control of bradiarrhythmias, the suppression of PVCs, and the improvement of low cardiac output states.