Patient ambulation and healthcare utilization amongst patients with temporary pacemakers
Patient ambulation was only possible in the TPPM group, with more than half of the patients (n=35, 55.6% vs 0 in the BTTP group, P<0.001) being able to ambulate while having a temporary pacemaker in place (Table 3 ).
In general, TPPM patients were paced for a longer duration than BTTP patients (median of 4 days vs 2 days in the BTTP group, P<0.001) (Table 3) . Most importantly, pacing outside the intensive care unit was only observed in the TPPM group (median of 2 days, range between 0 and 10 days maximum). In the TPPM group, 23 patients (36.5%) were paced exclusively outside the ICU. The cumulative total number of days paced outside the ICU was 160 days out of 422 total days paced for the TPPM cohort, representing almost 38% of the cumulative total pacing duration (with a mean duration of 2.5 +2.8 days per patient).