{"id":3321,"date":"2010-11-08T18:04:37","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T23:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/?p=3321"},"modified":"2025-05-10T21:17:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T02:17:29","slug":"pacemaker-maze-procedure-after-heart-valve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2010\/11\/08\/pacemaker-maze-procedure-after-heart-valve\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Are Pacemaker Implants Common After Heart Valve Surgery?&#8221; Asks Frank"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I just received an interesting question from Frank about heart rhythms after heart valve surgery. Frank writes, &#8220;I had a tricuspid valve repair, a Patent Foramen Ovalve (PFO) repaired and a Maze procedure performed in July.\u00a0 Now, it appears I will need to have a pacemaker put in next week. I was told that my Atrioventricular (AV) node may have been damaged and I am now in &#8220;heart block&#8221;.\u00a0 I was wondering if this is common?\u00a0 Thanks Adam!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"\/Images\/pacemaker-heart-valve-surgery.jpg\" alt=\"Drawing Of Pacemaker Implanted After Heart Valve Surgery\" width=\"316\" height=\"326\" \/>Diagram of Pacemaker Implant<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Frank raises a great question. As we have seen in prior blogs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2009\/10\/23\/heart-valve-replacement-pacemaker-implant-surgery-coumadin\/\">several patients receive pacemakers after heart valve surgery<\/a>. However, Frank&#8217;s question addresses two, other surgical considerations which you may not be familiar with &#8212; The Maze procedure and heart block.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Maze Procedure &#8211; You can learn more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2010\/01\/26\/maze-procedure-video-niv-ad-inova\/\">Maze Procedure by watching this video<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Heart block &#8211; According the American Heart Association, sometimes the signal from the heart&#8217;s upper to lower chambers is impaired or doesn&#8217;t transmit. This is &#8220;heart block&#8221; or &#8220;AV block.&#8221; This does not mean that the blood flow or blood vessels are blocked. Heart block is classified according to the level of impairment\u00a0\u2014\u00a0first-degree heart block, second-degree heart block or third-degree (complete) heart block.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Given Frank&#8217;s situation, I contacted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gillinov-Cleveland-Ohio.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr. Marc Gillinov, a leading heart surgeon from The Cleveland Clinic<\/a>, to get an expert opinion specific to Frank&#8217;s question.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gillinov-Cleveland-Ohio.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"See Over 30 Patient Reviews For Dr. Marc Gillinov\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/a-marc-gillinov.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Marc Gillinov - Cleveland Clinic Heart Surgeon\" width=\"120\" height=\"170\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nDr. Marc Gillinov<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Doctor Gillinov shared with me, &#8220;After a Maze procedure or any sort of heart surgery, it is occasionally necessary to place a pacemaker. In the case of a Maze procedure, the pacemaker is usually required because of pre-existing sinus node dysfunction&#8211;basically, the heart&#8217;s own internal pacemaker, which is called the sinus node, does not work properly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Gillinov also noted, &#8220;It is also possible to develop the need for a pacemaker after heart valve surgery. When this occurs, it is usually a result of some interruption of the conduction system by sutures placed in or around the heart valve.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I hope this helps Frank (and perhaps you) learn more about the need for a pacemaker following heart valve surgery. Thanks to Frank for his question. And, thanks to Dr. Gillinov for his continuing support of this patient and caregiver community.<\/p>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recovery"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41019,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321\/revisions\/41019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}