In children, or other patients whose body structure makes an implant near the collarbone difficult, the pulse generator may be placed in the abdomen. As with any type of surgery, there are risks to having a pacemaker implant. Your doctor will discuss these risks with you, and specific questions you have should be shared with your doctor. Your doctor will give you a schedule for followup checks to make sure your pacemaker is doing its job. Typically, patients have a checkup a few weeks after they are discharged from the hospital and then several more times during the first year.
Annual followups are common for many patients after their first year with a pacemaker.
One of the important parts of a followup visit is checking how much energy is left in the pacemaker's battery. Your pacemaker's battery is sealed inside the pacemaker case, safely protected from the body's fluids. When the battery's energy is depleted, a new pacemaker must be implanted. The surgery to remove the old pacemaker and implant the new one is generally very brief. There is a remote possibility that any electronic device can fail, but technical advances in recent years have made it possible to make pacemakers very reliable.