I have a pacemaker

can i have weightloss surgery having a pacemaker with heart failure safely?

that would be a question for your cardiologist.

Almost everyone who has surgery has to get medical clearance from a cardiologist before the surgery. Talk to yours, or your bariatric surgeon, to find out if you are a candidate.

People with pacemakers can have surgery. The surgeon will at least need a representative from the pacemaker manufacturer to be present to monitor the device. If tgere is a defibrillator in the oacemajer, it will need to be turned off.

Only your cardiologist can answer this question specifically related to your heart failure. I had a pacemaker at the time of my WLS so I can only talk about my experience. I had severe sleep apnea that was diagnosed about a year or so before I decided to have WLS. The apnea was so severe I had to have a pacemaker put in (I was flatline for 8 seconds during my sleep study). When I decided to have WLS obviously I had to have a cardio clearance and the pacemaker itself didn't seem to be an issue. Since I didn't have any heart problems, I was cleared by the cardiologist.

After I lost my weight, my sleep apnea completely went away. Since the pacemaker was there because of the apnea, I insisted it be removed. It started moving around after I lost all my weight (no more fat holding it in place). I actually had to hold it in place when I bent down to pick something up. My cardiologist kept telling me there was nothing wrong with my heart and since the apnea was gone he finally removed it (after about a year of arguing with him :) ).

Good luck.

If your surgeon doesn't require cardiac clearance, get it anyway. Not too much seems to trigger a blanket disqualification for surgery anymore. (Except smoking.)

But if you've gotten issues serious enough to have a pacemaker the responsible thing to do is make sure your own cardiologist signs off. Your surgeon will love you, and your family can be more easy about the whole thing. Once we have any issues heart related it's better to be safe than sorry. I've got no pacemaker but have other heart stuff and yes I got special clearance myself. Good luck.

edited: grammar

Have a ICD (pacemaker/defibulator) here. It was my cardiologist who got the ball rolling for me. Wanted to bump me up on the transplant list, for when the time comes.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I did plan on asking my caridologist. I just wanted to see if anyone had surgery with one. Thanks again.

Let us know what your doctor says! Good luck!