Intraoperative Pacemaker Rate Changes Associated with the Rest Mode

Abstract

Anesthesiologists frequently are required to provide perioperative management for patients with cardiac rhythm management devices. Here, I describe a case in which, despite efforts to ensure that the anesthesia care team understood the pacemaker and its settings, unanticipated pacing events occurred that created confusion about the status of the pacemaker in a pacemaker-dependent patient. The confusion was created by a relatively new function found in many current pacemakers, a rest mode.