Do they remove it

Do they remove it?

by Good Dog - 2022-10-24 17:10:44

That is a difficult question to answer without knowing what the problem is. Although frankly, I think it is a question that only your doctor can answer. I personally only know of one person that had his PM removed. He had an infection, so they removed the generator and the leads (the whole system). They then told him that he did not need it anymore. So they did not replace it. Now that makes zero sense to me unless he was misdiagnosed in the first place, but what do I know?

Anyway, I wish I could be more helpful. I am sorry. Perhaps someone else here can give you a better answer.

Sincerely,

Dave

A pacemaker is usually for life

by Gemita - 2022-10-24 19:07:12

I am sorry to hear you needed major open heart surgery in May followed by a pacemaker.  It seems you have ventricular pacing only from your comments?   

Once we start having electrical disturbances, for whatever reason, these disturbances usually become progressive.  They rarely improve or go away completely.   Even if healing were to take place or the original disease could be successfully treated or cured, there is no guarantee that it would last. 

Although the device itself could perhaps be removed from its pocket fairly easily, the leads would be well embedded into heart tissue/veins and removal would not be without risk in inexperienced hands.  Because of this, they might recommend you leave your entire pacemaker system in place if you didn't need it and perhaps to turn it off, but these are questions for your doctor.  

When we receive a pacemaker it is usually for life unless the doctor got the diagnosis completely wrong.  In your shoes I would want to play safe and keep the device and to have a device change when the battery needs replacing.  Actually questions about removing a device continue to be quite rare.

You probably need it

by Lavender - 2022-10-24 19:28:41

You were affected by the test when they reduce the pacemaker strength to see if your own heartbeat takes over. If you felt like you were falling off the face of the earth-like I feel at that point in the test-you probably need the pacemaker. Easy way to get this answered is to ask your cardiologist or EP. They know you better😉

Removal

by AgentX86 - 2022-10-24 22:04:58

It would be highly unusual (never heard of it) that a pacemaker would be removed but if it were, I'd be surprised if they removed the leads.  Faulty leads are often capped and left in place when new ones are needed so I'd expect them to do the same if a pacemaker were removed.

Thank you

by BIOTRONIK - 2022-10-31 14:38:28

Thank you everyone for the replies. I was just wondering if it had ever been done on someone. This was something that apparently been a problem since birth and took it's sweet time to come to the surface. I'm 55 years old and have been short winded for quite some time but just didn't think anything of it. I also had an aneurysm on my aorta so large they had to replace the artery. Always wrote it up as being out of shape and getting old. But catching covid brought it out really bad. Now I'm doing great and can actually breath like I've gotten new lungs. The doctors and nurses were amazed at how fast I was recovering. Zipping down the hallways and going to work a month earlier than they wanted me to. I just couldn't stay cooped up in my house anymore. Anyways I'm not gonna bore ya'll with a really long story. I'm just thankful and blessed to still be here.