As a medical professional with expertise in cardiology, I can confirm that pacemakers, like any medical device, can indeed fail. However, the rate of failure is quite low due to the rigorous testing and high-quality materials used in their construction. Pacemakers are designed to be reliable for many years, but they can experience issues such as battery depletion, electrical malfunctions, or mechanical problems with the leads that deliver the pacing signals to the heart. It's also important to note that the failure rate can be influenced by factors like the patient's overall health, the specific model of the pacemaker, and how well the device is maintained. read more >>

Electrocautery can inhibit the pacing stimuli or trigger ventricular pacing due to atrial oversensing. Radiotherapy can cause sensing malfunction, failure of telemetry function, and runaway pacemaker. Cellular phones may cause asynchronous pacing.read more >>