Pregnancy with an artificial pacemaker

Complete heart block in pregnancy is not a common encounter. The first case was reported in 1914 by Nanta (19) and today some 100 cases are documented (8, 10, 17). Heart block may be congenital or acquired secondary to cardiac surgery, rheumatic heart disease, or infective disorders (4, 22). Heart block, whether congenital or acquired, rarely creates any special obstetric problems (2, 14, 17). Today there is an increasing use of cardiac pacemakers in younger people and the first reported obstetric experience with a cardiac pacemaker implanted before pregnancy was by Shouse and Acker (23). This review will document the course and outcome of all reported pregnancies in women conceiving with an artificial pacemaker, and discuss complications and principles of management. We will also report our experience with a woman suffering from a complete heart block in whom an internal cardiac pacemaker was inserted before pregnancy.