Introduction and objectives:

Currently, there are scarce data about follow-up and complications in patients taken to implantation of cardiac implantable electronic devices. We sought to describe the incidence of complications and characteristics of 997 patients, taken to the implant of cardiac implantable electronic devices in a tertiary center in Colombia.

Material and methods:

An observational, descriptive study, with the follow-up of a retrospective cohort, was performed. Based on the systematic revision of medical histories from patients taken to cardiac electronic device implant during 2017 and 2018 in Las Americas clinic, located in Medellin, Colombia.

Results:

997 patients were included. All of them counted with available medical profiles and histories, with an average age of 74 years old. 55.6% of the patients were males. The most commonly implanted cardiac electronic devices were, dual-chamber pacemakers and the predominant indications for implantation were AV block (47%) and sinus node dysfunction (25.6%). The most frequent complications were the displacement of one of the cardiac electrodes (2.2%), followed by pocket hematoma (1.5%). There were no deaths related to the implantation of the cardiac electronic devices.

Conclusions:

The majority of patients had an advanced age and a high burden of comorbid conditions. However, the procedures related to the implantation of electronic cardiac devices had a low frequency of complications. The population under study had a similar frequency of complications derived from the procedures, to the ones reported through literature. This demonstrates these procedures are also safe and successful in our environment.