Electrolysis-a factor in cardiac pacemaker electrode failure

Abstract

During continuous pacing experiments at the University of Missouri Medical Center, Columbia, with the micromodule pacemaker receiver' implanted on the left ventricle of thirty-six mongrel dogs in complete heart block, it was observed that after 24 days in one case, 52 days in another, and 35 days in a third, micromodules with stainless steel electrodes failed to pace. Upon reoperation it was discovered that the positive electrode of one module had been reduced to a short stub. In another module the positive electrode was loose, disrupting the circuit. In the third module the positive electrode was completely missing.