pacemaker helps monitor and control your heartbeat. The electrodes detect yourheart's electrical activity and send data through the wires to the computer in the generator. If your heart rhythm is abnormal, the computer will direct the generator to send electrical pulses to your heart.

What does it mean when your heart is pacing?

Transcutaneous pacing (also called external pacing) is a temporary means of pacing a patient's heart during a medical emergency. ... By convention, a heart rate of  less than 60 beats per minute in the adult patient is called bradycardia. Not all instances of bradycardia require medical treatment.

Benefits. By regulating the heart's rhythm, a pacemaker can often eliminate the symptoms of bradycardia. This means individuals often have more energy and less shortness of breath. ... It will not prevent or stop heart disease, nor will it preventheart attacks.

Do pacemakers prolong life ?

Over 600,000 new pacemakers are implanted each year, with most of these devices in patients over the age of 60. ... Pacemaker Function at Time of Death Patients and their families often make assumptions that pacemakers prolong the dying process and thus prolong suffering. However, a pacemaker is not a resuscitative device.

Types of Pacemakers :

• Single-chamber pacemaker. This type of pacemaker has one lead that connects the pulse generator to one chamber of your heart. ...
• Dual-chamber pacemaker. With two leads, this device connects to both chambers on the right side of your heart, the right atrium and the right ventricle. ...
• Biventricular pacemaker.

What is the most common type of pacemaker?

There are three different kind of permanent cardiac pacing devices: (I) single-chamber:one pacing lead is implanted in the right ventricle or right atrium; (II) dual-chamber PMs-DDD: two leads are implanted (in the right ventricle and in the right atrium); this is the most common type of implanted.