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Gender differences are increasingly recognized in medicine and especially in cardiology. From previous studies, it is known, for example, that women have a higher likelihood for complications and a higher mortality related to coronary revascularization pro- cedures. In arrhythmias, gender-specific variations in the electro- physiological structure of the heart or hormonal effects may explain some of the gender differences.
A recently published large-scale registry study showed that women are more likely than men to have in-hospital adverse events related to implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantation. For pacemaker-related adverse events, gender has not unequivocally been identified as a risk factor.
The external obligatory quality control program collects ‘real-life’ data of all inpatient stationary primary pacemaker implantations in Germany. These data include the whole range of implanting centres from high to low volume. The data completeness lies above 95%. Participation in this program is linked to reimbursement for the procedures, thus providing such a high rate of documentation.
The aim of the study was to evaluate whether gender differences play a role in pacemaker implantation evaluating the database of the Institute of Quality Assurance Hessen in the federal state of Hessen, Germany.