Tamponade after Lead Replacement

• by MonteCristo
• 2012-05-21 08:05:34
• Complications
• 1514 views
• 4 comments

Hi Everyone,

I went in to get my pacemaker changed and a new atrial lead put in on Tuesday May 8th. I decided to have the old atrial lead extracted instead of leaving it in. This meant that my normal doctor would not be performing the surgery as he does not do extractions. The doctor that does the most lead extractions in the US performed the surgery. I also had a keloid scar and some scarring in the pocket that he cleaned up very nicely. I had some soreness but I also had a little bit of pain under my sternum so my doctor ordered a chest x-ray and an echo. Both were fine. I was discharged the next day. That night, Wednesday, I was starting to get some very strong pains up in my right chest, it was like I was getting electrical shocks that were giving me spasms, they would shoot up into my neck and head. At the same time I was starting to get phrenic nerve stimulation with my diaphragm doing donkey kicks. So off to the ER I went. I had to wait all through the night until the next morning when my doctor could see me to have the voltage turned down. He also interrogated the PM and "ran it through its motions". I went back to the ER to wait for the surgeon who performed the replacement to evaluate me. I had to wait all day long as he was in surgery. Towards the end of the night I started feeling some pressure in my chest and told the nurses about it but it was brushed off. The surgeons team came to see me where I expressed my concern over the growing pain I was having but they told me that the previous days scans were clear and that there was nothing there. When I left the hospital I could hardly get into the car because of the pain and pressure I was having in my chest. The next morning , Friday, I was in so much pain with every movement that I insisted on going back to the ER again. They took me and performed an echo and confirmed I was in pre-tamponade. The attending ER told me it was a good thing that I didn't stay home any longer.

They performed a pericardial window and put in a drainage tube. They said I had 300cc of fluid around my heart. My doctor thinks that it was micro perforation of the atrial wall. I stayed in the hospital until Monday.

I have now been home for a week and my recovery is a bit slow I think. I still have quite a bit of pain and discomfort from the incisions and I feel like I have a lot of pressure in my chest when I breathe deeply, especially in the right side, it can be quite painful. Also at night, when I sleep, I feel like my chest is very heavy.

How long does it usually take to recover from this? Am I at risk of it happening again? With my new atrial lead in place, in a seemingly delicate area, am I more at risk of it dislodging and creating more problems for me when I am under heavy exertion?

I have a follow up appointment on Thursday so if anyone has some advice or some questions that I should be asking please let me know.

Thank you.