Lead dislodging again right after procedure to fix

I'm at a loss... Dad just out of OR to repair displaced atrial lead (pm implanted 2 weeks ago), and technician says atrial not working right and seems to be dislodging again and that he's only ever seen this once before. He's with a top notch doc in NYC...has anyone ever heard of such a thing?

1 Comments

rare but not unheard of

by Tracey_E - 2013-08-29 09:08:30

So sorry to hear it isn't staying put again! We've had a few other members with the same thing. Leads come in barb and screw type. Sometimes our heart muscle won't cooperate with one so they need to try the other. That's often the next step after one dislodges twice, try it a third time with the other type. Other times it's the shape of the heart and you're dependent on the skill of the surgeon to find a good spot where it will stay put.

Is the dr a cardiologist, general surgeon or ep? If he's not an ep, then that's where I would go next. If he is and you are confident in his skill, then there isn't much choice but to go for it a third time.

I'll just throw this out there, take it with a grain of salt. Some reputations are earned and deserved. Some are overrated. Some earn a wonderful reputation but either lose skill with age or don't stay up on the latest and greatest so they don't quite live up to their reputation anymore.

Good luck!

Oh, another thought! Does he need the atrial lead?? They like to use a dual lead on most of us because it is backup and provides more information than just one, but many of us pace with one or the other. I pace every beat ventricle, but rarely use the atrial. If something happened to it, I'd think twice about going to a lot of trouble to fix it.

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