A SURVEY OF AWARENESS FOR PATIENTS LIVING WITH CARDIAC IMPLANTABLE DEVICES

Patients living with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) might perceive electrical equipments and some physical activities of daily life interfering with their devices and refrain from these. Our aim is to detect the awareness of the patients living with CIEDs related with electromagnetic interference (EMI), physical activities and other issues of daily living. A single centre cross sectional study was carried out on 93 (59 males and 34 females) patients who had been with CIED for 3.69±2.28 years. A tool of 54 questions composed of 5 domains related with general information, physical and daily life activities, and EMI of household appliances, medical devices and equipment with strong magnetic field was directed to detect awareness of patients about living with CIEDs. Patients stated that they could return to daily life activities, sexual life, driving, working, exercise and sports including swimming in a range of 59.1% to 87.2%. Less than half of the patients correctly indicated unsafe and some of the safe devices found at home. Cellular phones are considered as harmful by 46%. Approximately 40-60% of the patients found equipments that emit strong electromagnetic waves as unsafe. More than 57% of the patients would be able to differentiate safe medical equipments but did not have an idea for unsafe EMI effects of medical devices except for MRI. Number of patients who do not know followed the number of above mentioned responses for almost all of the questions. Our patient did not consider CIEDs as a restriction toward various daily life activities including potentially harmful sports such as swimming. Incorrect perceptions and lack of information of some patients need to be addressed for living with CIED and EMI. In addition to pacemaker education materials, in-patient cardiac rehabilitation consultation to provide an informative interview structured according to the needs of patients is necessary to promote quality of life for these patients and the proper function of the device.