Fast swimming

Advice sought.
Ex swimmer. Keen master/ open water racer. Post VT I had a dual chamber icd fitted 4 months ago. Waited out the requisite 6 week no exercise period. Resumed swimming. Steady base of 12-15km a week over 4/5 hours. Felt fine and returning to being quite fit. Discovered now that I need both leads repositioned. Doctors who were unable to give very specific advice pre op now insist I'm to blame for over exertion. Am I?
Also read that a cephalic vein entry is better than the usual clavin vein insertion?
Thank you

5 Comments

Thank

by Alastair - 2015-04-16 12:04:24

Sparrow,
Thank you for reply. Interesting points. I think it's right that much of this stuff is exploratory and speculative. I do feel that the measurement data around our generation of devices will yield a much more nuanced and effective response in the future. I will keep swimming, I will just wait a little longer!

Swimming

by golden_snitch - 2015-04-17 12:04:33

I'd think that swimming does put quite a lot of stress on a newly implanted pacemaker system as you constantly stretch out your arm and pull it back, and the chest muscles are moving, too. But it's always hard to say whether a patient actually "pulled" the leads out or whether they were not well attached to the heart right from the start. My EP says, leads that come lose because of certain types of movements, were not placed well. He does not blame the patient for pulling them out.

The cephalic vein is indeed better for placement, because one has found out that leads placed in this vein break much less often than leads placed in the subclavian vein. That's probably because the subclavian runs between the collar bone and the first rib, and in some patients it and the lead gets "crushed" between these two with certain movements. But this cephalic vs. subclavian debate is solely about lead fracture, not about the probability of leads coming lose.

Good luck for your surgery!

Swimming

by Pacemum - 2015-04-18 10:04:13

My daughter was advised by her cardio to avoid swimming for 12 weeks after pacemaker and lead replacement. She was allowed to return to other activities between 4 to 8 weeks.

Thank you

by Alastair - 2015-04-20 05:04:55

I found all those comments interesting and factually useful. Thank you guys

Ok

by Alastair - 2015-05-04 06:05:38

I now have my new leads in position, so I'm going to rest from swimming from 12 weeks. The t wave isn't showing at the moment on the Medtronic telemetry but I'm assured it may come back as the device settles in. Going to try an exercise stress test in 3 weeks.

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