lead draining battery

Hello All,

My name is Michelle, I'm 26 years old and have restrictive cardiomyopathy and a pacemaker. I recieved my dual lead medtronic pacemaker in 2009. I found out a couple years or so ago that one of my leads isn't workig properly and because of that it is draining the PM battery quicker than it normally would. They aren't sure why, but they are guessing that there is too much scar tissue around the lead causing it to work harder than it should. If it continues to decline at a continuous rate I will need to replace my PM in 2-3 years. I am 100% paced so I get my leads checked every 2-3 months.
I was just wondering if anyone else has had similar issues with a lead? And, if they had, did they have problems with the new lead as well? It just seems weird to me that there would randomly be scar tissue tin that spot and makes me wonder if the same thing will happen with the new one? Also, looking for opinions on if I should have the bad lead removed or capped when they do replace it. My cardiologist said they may or may not remove it depending on how attached it is to the surrounding tissue which sounds reasonable. But I wasn't sure if there were benefits or not to keeping it vs removing it.
I should also say, with my restrictive cardiomyopathy, I will eventually have everything removed once I get a heart translant, but since I'm really young (making my case pretty rare for that specific cardiomyopathy), I have no idea when I will recieve a transplant. Technically, I might get a transplant before I even need the new PM, but it could also not be for another 30+ years....

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated!

5 Comments

getting rid of a lead

by joelcr3 - 2014-09-28 01:09:47

I got thePM less than a week ago and I cant say that problems won,t happen. Its too early. The Cardiologist said that if I need to remove a lead it gets done by lazer and not too difficult to do. Maybe its a new procedure. I hope we both never need it.

lead

by Shell - 2014-09-28 02:09:29

I had a lead like that. I got my first pacemaker in 2006. It lasted 4 years. When I had that one replaced we decided to keep the same leads. Well, had that replaced over the summer. (again, lasted 4 years) This time I got a new lead. They just capped the old lead. Hopefully with this lead it lasts longer. So far the reports are saying at least 8 years.

reply to ryes

by michellekport - 2014-09-28 03:09:36

According to my cardiologist, the issue with the lead seems to be with how it's actually connected to the heart muscle. He thought one of the reasons could be because there was too much scar tissue on the heart muscle were it's connected, or that the end of the lead itself was just "bad." Either way, whatever the reason, it was making that lead work harder which is what was draining the battery. I'm horrible at explaining because I can just barely understand it when the Dr explains it to me. I know I will need a new lead regardless, and whether they remove my bad one or not will probably be something they decide after they open me up and see how attached it is. But, if it isn't super attached and could be easily removed (and I had a choice in if I wanted it to be removed) I wasn't sure if it was better to get it removed or not.
What is an electrophysiologist? / What would seeing one be able to tell me?

replacing leads

by Tracey_E - 2014-09-29 12:09:21

Hey Michelle!
Similar thing happened to me. They said the lead had a spot where the insulation ruptured, they didn't mention scar tissue. We cranked it up and kept it until the battery died. I fully expect to outlive these leads and the next ones after that, so I wanted to put off extraction as long as possible. I had room for another lead so they capped off the bad one, added the new one. I won't be able to get away with that again, next time a lead goes I'll have to extract and start fresh. Extraction has come a long way. The lasers are better and there are more experienced drs than there were even a few years ago, but it's still a little tricky.

How they explained it to me when the battery started to drain quickly... it's like running the air conditioner with the window open. The house will still get cool, but your power bill goes through the roof.

reply

by woof - 2015-01-31 10:01:05

Yes I have a similar problem. Had mine fitted November
2012 after less than 12 mths found that one of my leads is using more power whatever you call it more than it should and will drain the battery quicker. They did an xray couldnt see anything unusual in this..so i just go back every 6 mths for check up. I dont use it too much apparently so they were not too concerned.

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