Cardiac pacemakers in infants and children as observed in The Netherlands.

Indications and results are presented for nearly all the cardiac pacemaker implantations in children in The Netherlands from 1963 through mid-1979. Five infants and 71 older children received a pacemaker for a total of 184 patient years. Two of the infants died within a week of birth; four children died after the pacemaker failed to control a sick sinus syndrome, which in three of them developed after a Mustard operation for transposition of the great arteries. A seventh death was due to a myocardial infarction soon after the implantation. In addition to the initial implantations a further 82 operations were necessary in 32 children for various reasons, intolerance to wires or to the pacing unit being the most frequent.