4th Pacemaker Soon...leads are 21 years old

I received my first pacemaker in 1996.   I have had two replacemtns and it appears i am headed for PM number 4.   I have not had problems with anything thus far except now one or more of the leads is defective.

I have an appointment on 20 September 2018 at the pacing clinic and immediately following I will see my cardiologist to discuss "our" plan.

I am 73 so I am not interested in taking any more risk than necessary.  In other words,, if leads requre replacement...do so...and leave the old ones in place.  I have other issues including biochemical recurrent of prostate cancer.

Anyway, I just joined today and already found some useful information.

Thank you,

Ron

1 Comments

old leads

by Tracey_E - 2018-07-11 10:03:09

Are both leads bad or just the one? They can usually fit in a third, sometimes even a 4th, then they just cap off the old one and leave it in there. When I was in your situation, they did a vengogram (iv with dye in the cath lab) so they could see how much space they had to work with. If the new lead hadn't fit, my choices would have been extract or move the whole thing to the right side. 

 

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