RE: Pacemaker that is placed on the heart

I recently had my pacemaker and leads removed due to a vegetative growth on one of the leads. It was a staph bacteria and I spent 2 weeks in intensive care and 6 weeks on IV antibiotics.

My cardiologist says I cannot get a 'traditional' pacemaker but will need one that is placed by opening part of the chest cavity and the pacemaker will be placed on the heart.

Does anyone have one of these or have you heard of this? It seems a little scar to me but my HR has been dropping to 20 BPM at the lowest while sleeping and pausing for up to 3.5 seconds.

Any information would be helpful.

I was told I need to gain the 10% of the weight I lost and be really healthy before I can get the pacemaker. That being said, I can get a pacemaker if I have fainting, etc. I am grossly underweight now and I have a job the requires me to be sitting at a computer for 8-10 hours a day.

3 Comments

Thanks

by gizelle - 2013-01-26 02:01:53

Inga,

Thanks for the info. This doesn't seem quite as 'scary' as hearing it from someone wo went through the process.

Epicardial leads

by golden_snitch - 2013-01-26 03:01:32

Hi!

What you'll get are so-called "epicardial" pacemaker leads. I have two of them, on my left atrium and left ventricle, got them back in 2008. The surgery to place these leads is a lot more invasive than a regular pacemaker surgery, but it's no open-heart surgery, and they also do not have to break your sternum. You get a general anaesthesia, but no cardio-pulmonary-bypass is needed. In my case they went in using a horizontal incision of about 7 centimeters between the ribs just below my left breast (you can barely see it now, because it's really just below the breast). In addition, they had to open my old pacemaker pocket, so I had two incisions. The mini-thoracotomy, as they call the incision between the ribs, did hurt quite a bit after surgery. I needed very strong painkillers for the first 3 - 4 days, and the full recovery took me about 8 weeks. However, I suffered some complications like pleurisy and pleural effusion, maybe if I hadn't had these, I would have recovered sooner. Heart surgeon said that mini-thoracotomies hurt more than sternotomies at first, but then they heal sooner and patients recover faster than after sternotomies.

Hope this helps a bit.

Best wishes
Inga

Same issue

by Grateful1 - 2013-01-27 02:01:35

Hello,

I had the same issue you did with the leads, not any fun at all! Because of that I had the pacemaker implanted in my abdomen with an epicardial lead. I never even feel like I have something implanted. I had in implanted in May 2012.

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