Gone are the halcyon days when a patient could have a syncopal episode, obtain a diagnosis of heart block, receive a comprehensible ventricular-demand pacemaker, thank you profusely, go home, and live happily ever after. Your tax dollar has sired a space program resplendent with sophisticated microprocessing and computerization that are readily applicable to pacemakers. The advances in pacing have been huge. However, so have the complexities. The patient may now have a normal ECG at admission. The programmer for your pacemaker resembles the cockpit of a 747. Even the language is new. The electrophysiologists talk in "H-Vs" and "SSSs." The pacemaker representative talks in "VVIs" and "DDDs." Indeed, much like a teenager, the pacemaker itself is expected to talk back to you.
Fortunately, Dr Chung has provided a second edition of Artificial Cardiac Pacing: A Practical Approach. This readable and well-indexed text should benefit everyone from the occasional pacemaker enthusiast