My fil was just diagnosed with a 2:1 heart block. They’re installing a pacemaker. It appears to be a 3rd degree block. Can someone explain what this means? Everything online is geared to medical professionals and extremely hard to decipher.
In: 7
The heart beats when an impulse is sent from the SA node (top of heart) to the bottom of the the heart (ventricles). The SA node helps keep the heart rate regular and orderly and the ventricles are the real workhorses that pump blood. If the SA doesn’t work right or it’s signal gets interrupted when it’s traveling to the ventricles, the ventricles will still fire but the heart rate will tend to wander a little. A third degree block means the SA node and ventricles are both working fine, but not talking to each other at all (like my parents). A pacemaker will bypass the blockage the SA node is encountering and take over it’s function. This make the heart rate orderly and regulated again.
Latest Answers