leads moved

hey every 1 i was just wondering if any of you could give me some info i had a pacemaker put in in october wen for my check up yesterday 11 december an now been refered to another hospital as 1 of the leads have gone through my heart an was wondering if any of you knew how they removed it an how serious this is ???

2 Comments

lead issue

by Pookie - 2012-12-13 05:12:51

so are you saying that you have been told that one of your leads actually went through your heart or did it just drop - detached itself from the heart wall?

i have had 1 of my leads drop 3 times within 10 days, very rare, but it can happen.

actually I must back up a bit. before this particular lead decided to fall so many times - during the initial implant of my PM the lead did end up poking a hole in my heart and I ended up coding twice because the heart sac (which surrounds/envelops the heart) filled with blood and could not beat. but i survived, it was quite the journey to say the least.

my best suggestion is: before they do any further surgery, make sure you are comfortable with everything that is discussed with you. if you do not understand, keep asking questions until you are 100% satisfied. and for peace of mind - maybe this is just me - but I would insist that they keep you overnight after any sugery is done just to make sure everything is okay and i wouldn't be leaving the hospital without a chest xray to confirm that the leads are where they should be.

please keep me up to date

pookie

leads out

by RobertS - 2012-12-14 03:12:19

Hi Lou23,

As a newbie I [my pm was put in 4 days ago] this must be everyone's nightmare - displaced leads.

It is unlikely though that the dispaced lead has actually pierced the heart wall and gone through the heart. I think you'd not be posting if it had as you'd have had Pookie's problem.

Don't know what your leads are like but mine were threaded through a vein into my heart. They have little corkscrews on them [the leads not the vein!] and the lead is twisted so that they screw into the tissue of the heart wall in the atrium and/or ventricle in which it is placed. They can get displaced [more likely by coughing or sneezing than raising your arm my consultant told me] Takes a few weeks for them to become embedded in the tissue.

If a lead becomes displaced then the pacemeaker won't work properly and it is odd that you haven't noticed the effect. Apparently, it is not generally a big deal to remove and reposition the leads [I asked]. They just need to acess the pacemaker and repeat what they did when they put it in. Hassle is that you have to have stitches again. They should take an xray before you leave to make sure the lead is in the right place. So go with Pookie and keep asking till you get the answers you understand. Communication is sometimes not the medics strong point!

Best of luck and let us know how you get on - we all learn from each other's experience - and new guys like have lots to learn.

Its probably a lot easier than getting this new laptop, which has a mad jumping cursor/pointer problem, fixed!

Robert

You know you're wired when...

You have a $50,000 chest.

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