• Question: How does a pacemaker work?

    Asked by Alejandra_romero to Cristina, Gemma, Loan, Michael, Praveen on 16 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Cristina Villa del Campo

      Cristina Villa del Campo answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Hi Alejandra!

      Thanks for your question! The pacemaker we put into someone’s heart (well, not us, the doctors) works in a similar way to our own one. Our hearts have a pacemaker that makes sure we have a steady heartbeat. If we have arrythmias or our internal pacemaker fails the doctors need to put one in. They have electrodes that stimulate the heart rhythmically to make it pump like it would normally.

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