Going from a Guidant to a Medtronic

New to the club :) I wanted some opinions on which one of these devices anyone here has/ had and how well you've done on either one of these two manufacturers. I went through hell and back in the beginning with this Guidant pacer , 4 yrs into it, I started to feel somewhat better , idk maybe it was an adapting faze of some sort. Im unfortunately sensitive to the device so i feel whenever it paces, sometimes it was so bad that i'd end up at the ER cause it would pace for 10-15 minutes straight, when the rep would arrive to check the activity, it would show nothing!!. I've always thought this pacer has some type of defect...till this day i can tell them when it paces during check up and they're amazed but nonetheless they don't know why it never showed activity during those times. This time around, I opted to change to a medtronic with the opinion of my electrophysiologist but was wondering how any of you have done with this brand? thanks for reading ...

3 Comments

I am a first time pacer

by ItsmeWayne - 2013-10-28 01:10:54

Hi,
I am certainly no expert on devices and have no information there for you, in respect to brands, but I am and always have been hyper sensitive and I can feel the ventricular pacing, whenever it starts working and until it shuts off. For me, it is no fun, but I figure it needs to be done to get my heart pacing normally again. I have sick sinus syndrome and a-fib/flutter in the 500bpm atrial. When my Medtronic Advisa DM MRI senses the ventricle at 171 bpm, it speeds up the ventricle to try to get the atrium to settle down and start pacing normally. Maybe you are hyper sensitive also and no pacer will be able to hide the ventricle pacing feeling.
I do not feel the atrial pacing at all and I pace at 86.4% of the time.
Itsme Wayne

brands

by Tracey_E - 2013-10-28 10:10:45

There are some differences in the features, most notably how rate response works, but for the most part all of the brands work pretty much the same. In my opinion, it's the ep and the reps who do the programming that make the difference. Some are good at the simple things that come up all the time but get stumped easily when they see something out of the ordinary. An outstanding rep will do research and think outside of the box. Medtronic is a larger company, so statistically you have a better chance of finding a good rep who can get you feeling good.

I wonder if feeling the pacing has less to do with the pm itself and more with your lead placement. Maybe PacerRep will chime in, I'm just guessing. Pacing is pretty simple- the heart misses a beat, the pm generates a small signal that mimics what the heart should be doing on its own, the heart responds by contracting/beating. If the pm is pacing, it should show up in the report. Theoretically the voltage is set to the smallest amount it takes to get your heart to beat so very few people can even feel it go off much less be in pain from it. Something is not right. Are you with the same dr or have you had a second opinion?

Did you already get the Medtronic or is the change coming up?

Choices

by PacerRep - 2013-10-28 11:10:17

Hey Kaity...TraceyE talked me into it.

Tracey already touched on rate response...Your Guidant (Boston scientific) has 2 sensors that help determine your heart rate...if you switch to the Medtronic..you will only have one....their sensor is inferior to the rest of the field.

But what you are gaining is a feature known as Managed Ventricular Pacing (MVP).

What you are most likely feeling (this is evident by you saying you feel it during the tests and intermittently throughout your life) is Ventricular pacing....I've never met a patient that could feel Atrial pacing at a normal rate, but feeling the bottom chamber paced is not all too uncommon.

MVP is a fantastic algorithm to pace the ventricles as little as possible, sounds like a solid choice for you, unless you need your Rate Response sensor.

If you do need the sensor, there is a smaller company that has a device that has both sensors that you currently have as well as an algorithm that works like MVP (actually a little better IMHO). Depending on who you see or where you go, you may have a difficult time getting one of these, but if during those 4 years you had issues adjusting your sensor, you may want to consider it.

Find out if you are currently using "Minute Ventilation" on your Guidant device, if you are, consider the Sorin...if you are not....Medtronic will be a great upgrade for your specific situation.

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