Impact of COVID-19 on pacemaker implant.

Objectives: The purpose of this article was to determine the change in the volume of pacemaker implantations with the COVID-2019 pandemic and to assess the change in the number of pacemaker implants according to etiology during the pandemic.

Background: The establishment of a mandatory social isolation have generated a decrease in activities in cardiology units.

Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study that used a database of a Peruvian Hospital. Time was divided into three categories: Before COVID period and COVID period including Previous to Social isolation (SI) and Social Isolation. The number of pacemaker implantations were compared per the same amount of time.

Results: A reduction in the pacemaker implant of 73% (95% CI: 33-113;  < .001) was observed during the COVID-19 pandemic period, and a reduction of 78% of patients with the diagnosis of complete or high-grade atrioventricular block and a reduction in the de-novo pacemaker implant was observed, regardless of the etiology.

Conclusions: Our results indicate a very significant reduction (73%) in de-novo pacemaker implantation during the months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reduction in the number of de-novo pacemaker occurred independent of the etiology.