mri

hello i have to have an mri of my shoulder will that bother my pacemaker? right shoulder


3 Comments

MRI

by dizzy - 2015-02-02 08:02:03

WELL MY PACEMAKER IS ONY LEFT AND MY RIGHT SHOULDER IS THE ONE THAT NEEDS AN MRI i will call my dr and ask tomorrow

talk to your cardiologist

by Tracey_E - 2015-02-02 08:02:32

In general, no we cannot have mri's with a pacemaker. If yours is mri-safe, there is a protocol and it can be done. If yours is not mri-safe but is less than 10 years old, there are some facilities than can do it but generally not near the chest. It's generally only considered for us if it is something very serious. Can they do a CT instead?

that's still close

by Tracey_E - 2015-02-02 09:02:26

Doesn't matter, often they don't even want us in the room with the equipment. They usually don't want to be anywhere near the torso, but call and ask. Not just any facility can do it, and you may be told that it can't be done at all. Doing mri's on pm's that aren't mri safe is brand new and not a lot of places do it yet. Just warning so you aren't surprised.

When I had shoulder issues last year, we did CT and physical therapy. When that didn't work, I was told my choices were exploratory surgery or try the steroid shot and see if it worked. We didn't really know why it wasn't healing or exactly what was wrong, but I figured that was less invasive so I didn't have much to lose. That worked, so I didn't have to make any decisions about the mri.

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Your pacemaker receives radio frequencies.

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