Q: I need some good, honest information about whether it’s safe to use power tools – chainsaws or jackhammers, for example – when I have a new aortic valve and pacemaker for my heart. – Prairie View, Illinois
A: Assuming that you are past the one- to two-month recovery period following surgery for the valve and pacemaker, and assuming as well that neither the chainsaw nor jackhammer are heavy-duty industrial models with very high electrical currents, these and similar devices are generally safe for you to use.
In the weeks following surgery, patients are advised against lifting heavy objects or subjecting themselves to strenuous exertion. But once that period is over, they are largely without restriction. Short of participating in professional-level contact sports such as wrestling or football, which can sometimes result in severe trauma, a person with a new heart valve or pacemaker is free to pursue the same range of physical activities as people without these implanted devices.
The only issue for a person with an artificial valve (as opposed to a biological valve derived from a pig or cadaver) has to do with taking warfarin (Coumadin). Warfarin is an anticoagulant that prevents potential stroke-causing blood clots from forming on the valve’s metallic surfaces that open and close to regulate blood flow through the heart. With the bloodstream thus thinned, clotting takes a little longer than normal and an injury might result in heavier- than-normal bleeding. Patients, duly informed about this heightened risk, must decide for themselves whether they should participate in certain activities.
Pacemakers, which generate electrical pulses to pace an otherwise slow or irregular heartbeat, are potentially vulnerable to the electromagnetic or electromechanical fields created by electrical equipment. While a strong enough field could temporarily inhibit or shut off a pacemaker, fields produced by the modest-sized machines that a hobbyist tends to use are unlikely to cause such interference. Discuss using the machine with a caregiver prior to trying it out.
Ironically, significant threats to pacemakers may be found in the hospital environment. Magnetic resonance imaging machines, for example, can disrupt a patient’s pacemaker. (MRI is considered contraindicated for patients with such implanted devices.) Medical staffers are also trained to monitor patients carefully for adverse effects during exposure to other equipment that produces strong fields.
Modern “rate-responsive” pacemakers, which adjust depending on activity levels, may be sensitive to vibration caused by machines. They might sense such movement as coming from your body and increase the heart rate accordingly.
– Dr. David L. Hayes, Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
