perforation

I received a St. Jude 5386 pm in December 2006. From the beginning I had something that felt like a "tic" at the pm site. The cardiologist and the tech told me it was just "settling in." It got worse over the year, and I learned to make it stop by holding my torso in a certain position. It got increasingly difficult to do that and a new sensation cropped up: it felt like a cell phone on "vibrate" only less intense, also at the pm site. 10 months after the implantation an impedance check was done and showed that the atrial lead had dropped to 45% of its implant value.

When the cardiologist tried to replace the atrial lead, he perforated the atrial wall with the new lead, which generated cardiac tamponade and required open heart surgery to stop the leakage.

I am also now experiencing discomfort at the site whenever I cross my arm gently over my chest, and sometimes it feels like there is a pricking there. Has anyone had a similar experience to either of these?
Loeke

3 Comments

Yep

by boatman50 - 2008-02-23 10:02:07

When my pm was put in as an emergency all seemed well and I was sent home the next day. 2 days later I was back in the er with pains in my neck, back and arm. Turns out the first doc put one of the leads thru my heart and I did have blood around the heart. I had to be sent into NYC and a different hospital to have it fixed. I hope it all is good now, Boatman

OhmyGod!

by truenorth - 2008-02-24 03:02:11

See, stories like this scare the hack out of me!

When they bring you into the office and show you that film that was obviously made in the late '70s [judging by the clothes and hair styles] about PMs, they NEVER tell you about the bad stuff that can happen, like this perforation business. In fact, that's the first time I've heard that such a thing can HAPPEN!

Me too!

by swilson10 - 2008-02-24 10:02:51

Several hours after having my leads and pacemaker replaced last year, I kept complaining about not being able to breathe and how much my chest was hurting. It turned out that after so many attempts to place my atrial lead earlier that day the surgeon made a small puncture to the heart which over several hours led to tamponade. Luckily I was still in the ICU for recovery so there were able to do the pericardiocentsis (big needle drain jammed into my chest) procedure bedside. That nearly did not work and they were also prepping me and the OR for open heart surgery. I was so very blessed that night!! I don't have the tingling at that incision site, but definitely get it across the major keloid scaring at the pacemaker implant site. As I am sure you all know by the time tamponade has set in our hearts were in big trouble and we really are all lucky to be here.
Many blessings, Shanna

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