Pacer in abdomen

My daughter has had a pacemaker since 10 months old, after open heart surgery. It is in her abdomen, one lead attached to outside of her heart. She is 27, stll has the outside lead, though it takes more voltage to get i the impulse to the heart. She had the pacemaker replaced once in 2008 after 15 years ( replaaced at age 5 because they shorted that one out when they cauterized a wound). She miraculously was hardly ever using her pacemaker. After 2008 implant, she began using her pacemaker 100%, no real explanations except that it can happen. Now we are relacing again to the shoulder with two internal leads. They don"t want to remove the old pacemaker in the abdomen. I am not comfortable with leaving it in. Doctor will do if I insist, but says he will need a surgeon to do this and recovery time is longer and infections more apt to occur. Any comments or suggestions. Thank you

9 Comments

If it were me

by Porkypig - 2014-07-15 03:07:08

Hi, if it was me or my daughter I would want the old PM out. One less thing to get infected. Yes it would be painful for a bit and longer to recover. That's just my opinion anyway. Hope all goes well whatever she has done xx

Same Recovery Time

by Pacemum - 2014-07-15 03:07:59

My daughter had her pacemaker changed from the external abdomen pacemaker to the internal two lead pacemaker just before her eighth birthday. Because she was still quite small they left the pacemaker in her abdomen for a little while as they wanted to make sure that the shoulder one was working well before removal of the pacemaker in abdomen. She stayed in hospital one night after having her shoulder pacemaker implanted and they turned the pacemaker in her abdomen right down. My daughter then returned to hospital a few months later to have the pacemaker box removed from her abdomen and the old pacemaker lead sealed. She had the removal done in the morning and left hospital the same day after have the pacemaker box removed from her abdomen.

The recovery and restrictions after having the shoulder pacemaker put in were longer then for the abdominal box removal. After the box was removed from her abdomen we really only had to wait for the wound to heal. So I would say speaking from experience that the recovery for the removal is less.

We live in the UK and our surgery is on the good old NHS. The implantation of the pacemaker was described as for medical reasons but the removal is described as cosmetic surgery.

I will add that my daughter does have a better heart function with the two lead internal pacemaker.

Hope that this helps.

Sue

Correct

by patti929 - 2014-07-15 04:07:16


Thanks. and yes we have to make medical decisions for her as her legal guardians. I prefer to have it taken out but the doctor was trying very hard to dissuade us from doing so, saying it was abdominal surgery, like a c-section and not wanting to put her through that.(Note: she was through that in 2008 when it was changed out).

replacement

by Shell - 2014-07-15 04:07:40

What does your daughter want? At 27 she should be able to make her own choices (unless she's incapable of making the choice and you have the legal right to make her medical choices.) I myself would probably want the old one out but maybe not at the same time.

more surgery

by Tracey_E - 2014-07-15 05:07:26

Removing the old lead is considerably more surgery than replacing the generator. If it's not causing problems, I would leave it alone. If it makes her uncomfortable, maybe just take out the generator but leave the lead, but really, I wouldn't do another surgery unless it's necessary. I could be wrong, but I believe the infection risk is HIGHER taking it out than leaving it in.

Pacer shorted out

by donr - 2014-07-22 09:07:13

Patti: You mrntioned the following: "( replaaced at age 5 because they shorted that one out when they cauterized a wound)."

It caught MY attention as an EE having written about electrocautery & PM/ICD's several times before.

Could you give me more details about this event? Intriguing, to say the least.

Donr

That was in .....

by donr - 2014-07-23 07:07:40

.....1992, or thereabouts. Not exactly the cave man days for PM's. but pretty far back.

Which bone in the arm? between elbow & shoulder? Where was /were the incisions that they cauterized? Near shoulder or nearer to elbow or in wrist region?

I'm sorry if I sound like a purist or nit-picker, but for my own edification as an EE, I'd like to understand what happened. I assume that "They" told you that they shorted out the PM. That would be difficult to do if they were working on an arm - they would have to touch the lead ends inside the heart to cause a short circuit in the device. It sounds to me like they placed the ground return patch for the EC equipment in the wrong place - like on her back - & the rather strong electrical current of the EC device passed too close to the PM. Consequently they overloaded the sensor circuits in the PM & essentially "Burned it out." Was her PM in the abdomen at that time, since she was a relatively small child?

Donr

Pacemaker shorted out

by patti929 - 2014-07-23 08:07:17

The bone was between the shoulder and the elbow. The incision was on the elbow. Yes, the pacemaker was in her abdomen.
Patti

Shorting out pacemaker

by patti929 - 2014-07-23 12:07:29

Done:
When my daughter was 5 she broke her right arm when she fell off playground equipment . When the orthopedist saw her arm was not holding a set in the cast, he put her in for surgery to place a bar in her arm temporarily. They cauterized the incision and shorted out her pacemaker. She immediately had to have her pacemaker replaced.
They came out with a warning about not cauterizing a wound with a patient with a pacemaker

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Member Quotes

I had a pacemaker when I was 11. I never once thought I wasn't a 'normal kid' nor was I ever treated differently because of it. I could do everything all my friends were doing; I just happened to have a battery attached to my heart to help it work.