Can pacemakers cause atrial flutter?

It’s your heart’s natural pacemaker. It generates the electrical pulses that tell your heart to beat. When the sinus node fires off the signals at the wrong pace, your heartbeat can be too fast (tachycardia), too slow (bradycardia), or irregular (arrhythmia). It can lead to abnormal heart rhythms, including AFib.

Abstract. Atrial flutter (AF) is a troublesome arrhythmia for patients with an implanted pacemaker . Although it has recently become possible to eliminate AF by radiofrequency catheter ablation (RF-CA), the incidence of AF before and after pacemaker implantation has not been clarified.

The atrial pacemakers terminated many attacks of paroxysmal atrial flutter safely and reliably in a follow-up period ranging from 24 to 60 months (average, 42). No major complications developed.

Some patients continue to experience palpitations, near syncope, and syncope after pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation .