Components of a Pacing and ICD System: Basic Concepts of Pacing

Modern day pacemakers serve the primary function of either maintaining a minimum heart rate to avoid symptomatic or potentially life-threatening bradyarrhythmias, or offering resynchronization between the left and right ventricles in the setting of heart failure. However, multiple advances in device design, programming, sensor technology, and materials science have afforded the ability to offer an ever-widening range of devices with a variety of specialized features. In this chapter, we focus on the basic principles underlying cardiac pacing and then touch on several aspects of lead, device, and algorithm design.