Permanent His-bundle pacing: seeking physiological ventricular pacing.

AIMS: Right ventricular apical pacing can have deleterious effects and the His bundle has been widely reported to be an alternative site. This paper presents our experience with permanent His-bundle pacing (HBP).

METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients referred for pacemaker implants (regardless of block type) were screened to determine if temporary HBP corrected conduction dysfunctions (threshold < or =2.5 V for 1 ms) and provided infra-Hisian 1:1 conduction of at least 120 s/m. Of the 182 patients selected, HBP corrected conduction dysfunctions in 133 (73%) patients, 42 (32%) of whom were rejected for the permanent procedure due to high thresholds. His-bundle lead implantation was attempted in the remaining 91 patients and was successful in 59 (65% of all attempts, 44% of all possible cases).

CONCLUSION: In some patients, permanent HBP may be an alternative to right ventricular apical pacing.