Pacemaker lead dislodgment twice in a row?

• by girl dreamer
• 2012-11-14 04:11:39
• Complications
• 2003 views
• 11 comments

Hi!

I'm 17 years old and on Nov. 5, I received a dual-chamber pacemaker for Sick Sinus Syndrome.

After waking up in recovery, I experienced just a few arrhythmias which I attributed them to my heart just being "normal."- you know just my daily thing.

However, 4 hours after the implant, the arrhythmias got way worse and they turned to runs where my heart would beat an irregular beat and continue very fast and irregularly. This worsened over night and was leaving my fatigued as every time I went to walk, the arrhythmias would "turn on" and every single beat would be irregular, leaving me out of breath.

i texted my cardiologist and he told me to meet him the ER of Children's Hospital the following morning. He told me everything was fine, and the ER doc said the x ray looked perfect.

Well, they were wrong.

A few days later, I go to my follow-up visit and have the Medtronic Lady do the function test. She says she doesn't have capture in the ventricular lead even at the highest sensitivity. My other cardiologist ( the surgeon) takes one look at the x ray and says the cable is way out of place and instead of being near the end (the tip of the ventricle) , it's to the side near the entry( and exit) and of the right atrium.

So, he has me go to the operating room 3 hours later and "fixes" it. That was Friday.

On saturday, i get the same type of arrhythmias that obviously arose suspicion in me of lead displacement. So, my mom and I go to another ER. It's a teaching hospital so the resident and radiologist looked over my x ray and said everything looked "neat!" A medtronic guy comes over 2 hours later and immediately tells us that he does not sense the atrial lead in 4 volts and the ventricular one is off by a bit. The report alo says high threshold in the atrial lead.

My setting at that that moment for the atrial lead was 1.0 V and he had to turn it up to 5.0V to make it work. The Medtronic guy goes to the look at the Xray, comes back laughing maniacally and tells us the doctors there don't know crap. He say the atrial lead does not have the J shape and appears pulled and is completely straight and barely in the atrium. The ventricular lead has moved and lost its form.

The pacemaker report also said that in that week, i had 132 PVC singles and 11 PVC runs.


Yesterday, we went back to my second cardiologist and he looks at the x ray and says the atrial lead has definitely moved.

The atrial lead caused phrenic nerve stimulation, resulting in violent right-sided diaphragmatic stimulation. It occurred on the way to the hospital ( to the ER on Monday) and while at the ER.
( HAS THIS EVERY HAPPENED TO ANYONE??)

Finally, the cardiologist operated yesterday for the third time and repositioned both wires. An xray was taken and another doctor commented that the atrial lead was not placed correctly. It is still at 90 degreed in the atrium but just more inside. the cardiologist explained to me that my right atrium is abnormally small and makes it difficult for them to place the, correctly.

I've already had to have two lead revisions, and I don't want to find out on my next follow-up visit that I need another.( it's this friday)

Does anyone else have an atrial lead without the J form?

Why would all this happen? I barely moved my left arm! :(

Is it the surgeon's fault? It appears to me that when I leave the hospital, everything's in place, but less than 48 hours later, they're already dislodged.