ICD explant including leads

Hi to all members!

I posted a message several weeks ago that my husbands' ICD got infected after the doctors have done revision for the pulse generator. He had a month of IV antibiotics in the hospital and doctors decided to do a thoracotomy procedure to explant the whole system out last Friday 22 January. Had anyone experience this procedure. Is that the only way the ICD leads can be taken out?




2 Comments

thoracotomy?

by ElectricFrank - 2011-01-26 01:01:35

The more usual way to remove the leads is to just extract them from the vein sometimes with the help of a laser. I suspect they felt that the thoracotomy was needed or better since he had an infection that wasn't responding to antibiotics. This can be a very serious situation since the infected leads are in a blood vessel. I'm assuming that the ICD was implanted on his chest just below the clavicle. If it was located under a muscle for cosmetic reasons then access to might have required the thoracotomy.

best wishes for his speedy recovery,

frank

thoracotomy

by gertie67 - 2011-01-29 10:01:04

Thank you Frank.

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