faulty atrial lead

Hello folks. I had an issue I wanted to share with you based on a faulty atrial sensing lead that I had since 2009. At that point I received my third pacer (dual chamber) and on occasion would have issues with my left pectoral muscle twitching right along with my pacer only if I laid on my left side. Needless to say I didn't sleep well. On my follow up to the pacer clinic I made the Pacer Tech aware of my problem. The Tech advised me that the atrial sensing lead was only sensing about 20 % of the time and that they had placed it in unipolar mode to conserve the battery life. Essentially the lead was failing and this was the reason for this. I was later told by my Doctor that unipolar mode is used when one of the conductors in the lead begins to fail so they bypass the conductor and use the body as an alternate conductor path. Hence the the reason for the muscle twitching. Anyway I told the Tech that this wasn't going to work for me because it was keeping me up at night. The Tech then consulted the Doctor, reprogrammed the pacer and that particular issue was resolved. I was told then too that the pacer would have a shorter life do to the increased current required by the failed lead. The pacer lasted about four years. During that time I could still perform physical activity but it took a while to adjust to it. For example climbing a flight of stairs would leave me out of breath for a good minute or two.as well as anything else that was fairly strenous. Now during this 4 year peroid I guess I developed a sort of baseline as to what I thought was my actual physical ability. I say this because when the Doctor replaced my pacer back on 7-10-13 he also installed a new atrial lead. And ever since then I have noticed a significant improvement in starting up any physical activity. I do find it curious that the lead failed immediately after the pacer replacement back in 2009 but such is life right? I didn't really realize the difference between the leads until I received the new one. I thought I was just slowing down with age haha! Hope this is helpful to anyone in the community. Thanks, Ted.

2 Comments

failed lead

by Ted123 - 2013-07-27 06:07:14

Thanks Don for the reply. I can relate to all things electrical that can fail at any time. I've worked on electronics since 1990 and I too agree that no matter how much quality testing is done it doesn't guarantee a specific life span for the equipment or material.
It's good that you were able to manage with the broken lead. I have 3rd degree heart block and depend on the A lead. I guess I could've had it changed and the Doctor did give me the option but I told myself I would wait until the pacer would expire. Had I known then that it would have helped this much I probably would have had it done then. Hindsight is always 20/20 lol. Take care...Ted

Failed lead

by donr - 2013-07-27 10:07:11

Ted: I'd say "No big deal when a lead fails early," but to you, the guy w/ the failed lead, it REALLY is a big deal. I had that happen at the 4 yr point w/ exactly the same symptoms as yours. Twitching drove me nuts. Finally the lead separated completely & I had NO lead atall. Now THAT was fun. Fortunately, it was NOT the lead I depended upon, so did not feel too bad. They replaced the lead almost immediately, leaving the old lead in there.

All that the Dr. told you is completely accurate; all that you told him is completely correct about how you were feeling.

When you are talking things electrical (or mechanical, even) things can fail at any time - even the day after they are put into service. F'rinstance - every aircraft engine is tested extensively before it is installed on a plane to ensure that it will work correctly & to find any of those early failure possibilities. Something as simple as a coaxial PM lead is tested, but not for hours, before it is released for use. But they still can fail early. All sorts of things can cause failure that cannot be predicted. A pinhole in the insulation that is so small it goes undetected can lead to corrosion that causes failure. When the wires are made, they are extruded through a miniscule diameter die - during that extrusion, brittleness can be created that causes early failure. The list goes on!

Be unhappy, but not surprised!

Don

You know you're wired when...

Your old device becomes a paper weight for your desk.

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