How long do they last?

My husband has a a biventricular icd/pacemaker since January of 2006, in December it has 75% power left in its battery, last Thursday he went in for another check and it has 25% power left. He has never been shocked. Does this mean something bad is happening? It really scares me or is this a normal occurrence. I wondered if that means his heart is getting worse and it is pumping or something more for him. I asked at this doctor's but got no sensible response just a "oh, sometimes they do that" so I am worried sick. Please enlighten me. Thank you

4 Comments

batteries

by Tracey_E - 2009-03-23 01:03:26

A lot of things affect battery life, very few of them have anything to do with how much we use the pm/icd. The settings have safety margins, wider safety margins drain the battery faster. Every time they modify the settings (a normal thing to do) it changes the estimated battery life. I would ask for more details about why it's dropped so much in just a few months more than sometimes they do that! Ask for a copy of the report for starters, some of the guys here can tell you what the numbers mean. It's probably just a change in settings, it could be a lead issue, it could be one of the numbers they told you is a mistake.

I have a lead that's impeded, a kink ruptured the insulation. It still works- picture the window open with the air conditioner running, it still cools but your power bill is higher. I've got about 8 months left on a battery I got in 2006 that should have lasted ten years.

The icd is not pumping for him, his heart muscle is doing the pumping just as it always has. A pm sits back and watches what the heart is doing. When it sees that the heart doesn't beat fast enough, it generates a pulse that causes the heart to beat.

Battery Life

by SMITTY - 2009-03-23 04:03:28


Hi Squeak,

The battery life of most pacemakers/ICDs today is 5 – 8 years. As Patch and Tracey indicate there are a number of variables that can affect the life of a battery,

However, the "expected remaining battery life" is reported to the person doing the pacemaker checkup. You can ask for this number or even better request a copy of the printout that is made showing all the data obtained for that checkup, including estimated remaining battery life. With copies of the printout you can keep up with how fast the estimated remaining battery life is decreasing.

My PM battery has shown only a slight decrease in remaining life during the last 3 years. I'm still showing an "estimated remaining battery life" of 20 months and my PM will be nine years old in a few months. The key words here being ESTIMATED REMAINING BATTERY LIFE. But estimated numbers are better than no numbers and you will not have to rely on a short answer such as "oh, sometimes they do that." You are entitled to better answers than that.

Good luck,

Smitty

battery life

by skye - 2009-03-23 09:03:01

I too have a Biventricular pacemaker.. it was implanted in nov 2005 and I just had replacement on Jan 22,2009. it lasted just over 3 yrs. I have one of the leads recalled by medtronic which is still functioning but drawing more power from the battery... They considered lead revision but felt it safer to to deal with replacement more often rather than adding more leads in my chest. I am told that 3 yrs is not all that incommon and replacement is fairly easy...

skye

by Tracey_E - 2009-03-23 09:03:01

I elected to not fix my bad lead last time I had my battery replaced. It works but drains the battery quickly. I got 4 years out of my last battery, I'll get about 3 1/2 out of this one. Replacements are very easy. If the initial implant is a 10, replacement is a 3 or 4.

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