[Electrode fracture in pacemaker patients (author's transl)].

Electrode fracture is a serious late complication of pacemaker implantation. This complication was observed in 33 patients within 3 years whereby the interval between electrode implantation and fracture was on average 35 (12--113) months. The cause lay partly in the electrodes themselves--in all cases singly wound spiral electrodes--and partly in technical deficiencies in the extrathoracic loop formation. Attention is drawn to the fact that fracture has never occurred in the Elema electrode type 588 used routinely by the authors.