"old" leads

My Dr said I had an "old" lead implanted in 1990, and that could drain the V. quicker. Anyone with that same situation? Any suggestions or comments to slow down the drainage?

Thanks

1 Comments

old leads

by Tracey_E - 2019-01-22 21:53:33

Is it draining it faster, or did they say it's a possibility it can drain it faster? Some doctors are afraid of old leads on general principal but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Average lead life is 15 years but we have members with leads 20, even 30 or more years old that are still working. I have one from 1994 that's still in good shape. My doctor keeps an eye on it but we don't plan to mess with it until there's no choice. When my other original lead started to go bad, we just kept an eye on it. They told me they optimized some settings to make it last longer and continue to work but I don't know specifically what they did. It had to be cranked up to get the signal through so it shortened the battery life. We changed the battery at the same time as the lead, until then they just monitored it. That was 5 years after I was first told there was a problem. 

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