new member

greetings to all, just read bunch of postings and i am in good company. dont have a lot of people to talk to about having a defibulator in my chest and a defective lead into my heart (Sprint Fidelis). year ago i had alarm go off, thought it was battery but turned out was the defective lead. Medtonic reps adjusted my defibulator told me not to worry. never see my MD, only get Medtronic reps or download via Carelink from home. anyway wnt ot UCSF for second opinon, told that lead cannot be used and when change battery change lead. i am at that time now, battery is got month or two so will change out the lead in my heart and i have decided to have the defective lead extracted, bit risky.
anyway had the procedure schedule and the night before, Anthem B/C refused to approve, latter denied procedure as investigative. anyway,still moving forward, all the best david

2 Comments

A couple of thoughts

by ElectricFrank - 2011-12-13 01:12:27

Must be that the defective lead is a atrial one. In this case they can do single chamber pacing in the ventricle as well as use it for the defib. It would be nice though to have the lead replaced as pacing would like be better.

As for removing the bad lead it seems quite a few folks just leave them in. I think there is a way to image the vein to measure space.

Anyway, welcome to the forum. There have been quite a few folks that have had lead replacements and will likely jump in.

frank

Welcome David!!

by donb - 2011-12-13 09:12:41

Yes, it's always easy to say,"Been there, Done that" In my case I didn't know there was this support group for info especially looking at lead removal. I did a lot of research online, worried like crazy only to find out later that it turned out "a piece of cake". As has been posted a number of times, lead removal is best done by very experienced surgeons. New techniques have developed over the years removing a lot of the risk factor.

In my case and most other members here, bad leads are left in and 1 or more leads are just added. In my case I needed a complete new right chest PM implant with another pair of leads added leaving my old pair in place. Reason was my old PM was removed because of erosion which usually carries the risk of infection. With lots of antbiotics I was lucky to bypass that route. I also want to mention that this was my 4th PM since 1992 and even though it was a complete newsite, recovery was much shorter and really no restrictions as to arm movement. Maybe because of the extra lead length through a new route to my heart made the differance.

I have been much happier with my new site as my old site was a real mess with scar tissue after the 18 years with 3 differant PMs'. I also have to mention I didn't need a second opinion as I have 2 Cardiologists doing implants & I got the better one of the 2 as my other Cardiologist was off duty at the time. Sorry for all the details but feel free to get good communication from your Dr. I do question why the lead removal?? You probably have used Search (upper right) & check members posting on lead removal & replacement. Questions?? Don't forget "Private Message" anytime for details from most members. donb

You know you're wired when...

Your favorite poem is “Ode to a Cardiac Node”.

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I, too, am feeling tons better since my implant.