Do leads break with growth?

• by ritac
• 2012-10-24 09:10:01
• Batteries & Leads
• 1325 views
• 1 comments

Hello everyone!
My son is 8 years old and was implanted with an epicardial pacemaker when he was 11 months old, due to bradycardia problems. These events reveled to be benign and he stopped using his pacemaker a couple of years ago.
In his last appointment we realized that there were some problems of communication between the battery and the heart, probably due to a lead break (although we could not physically see it in the x-ray!). It was no problem in his case, since he doesn’t use his pacemaker anymore. So the pacemaker was shut down.
We are now facing the dilemma whether the pacemaker should be removed or not! The electrophysiologist advises to remove as soon as possible. On the other hand, the surgeon says it would cause less harm if the pacemaker is removed at an older age (18 years old or so).
We’ve been reading about infections, hernias and other (terrible) complications that can rush from this and I’m terribly worried, of course! But I do have a practical question that I cannot find the answer to and maybe someone in the forum can help me out: What happens to leads with growth? Do they physically break under the pressure? In any circumstance can the pressure be made in the heart muscle?
I’ll appreciate any comments and/or links to know more about this.
Thank you in advanced,
Rita