Sorin? Anyone have one?

My St. Jude is malfunctioning and the EP mentioned replacing it with a Sorin. I have asked around and no one seems to have heard of them. My fear is lack of Sorin Reps nearby. I did find a few old post that stated they were/are a good PM. Any thoughts now several years later? Thanks in advance..

7 Comments

Hi Live_Strong..............

by Tattoo Man - 2013-08-13 01:08:32


.......................my first PM was a Sorin and my current one is a St Judes ! I honestly cannot tell the difference.

Here in the UK the Techies have all the kit to work with either so I can't see that there should be a problem.

Why don't you just ask "why"........??

Best wishes.

Tattoo Man

Now EP says Biotronik?

by LIVE_STRONG - 2013-08-13 04:08:35

The reason he was going with a Sorin vs a new St. Jude was the smaller size of the Sorin. I think he is hoping the insurance doesn't give him a hard time since my battery has a year left. But since he has to move the PM anyways since it has migrated away from the original site, and remove and replace my Lead...I wanted it all done at once. I sure is heck don't wanna go back next year!
I let him know I was hesitant about the Sorin, not because of quality but rather lack of reps. There is One in my area.
Another question I had was about home monitoring? I thought most newer PM's had that capability. Is it even important? It seems like it would be a nice feature. So he did say that if I wanted Home Monitoring he could go with Biotronik or St. Jude. Then he said that Biotronik had the best Home Monitoring. I feel comfortable with St. Jude since that's what I have...
It just doesn't seem like a lot of people have Biotronik either. If most EP's use BS, SJ and Medtronic.....there must be a reason, yes?
Ugh...I'm so overwhelmed. I'm fairly sure he will go with Whihever of the 3 I really want if I insist.

So....which one? I have a Single Lead - Atrial for SSS.

I wish I would of stayed on top of things here. My husband was DX'd with Stage 4 Cancer shortly after my implant and my whole world was turned upside down. I forgot I even had a PM!
By the Grace of God he is doing well...

Home monitoring

by golden_snitch - 2013-08-13 05:08:04

Hi!

I am constantly surprised of the high number of rather "simple" pacemaker patients here who are being home monitored. With a simple heart block or SSS you definitely do not need it. It doesn't make anything safer or easier, it's, that's my personal opinion, just a way of making money. There are certain benefits for patients who are at higher risk, for instance ICD patients and CRT (heart failure) patients. But for the average pacemaker patient home monitoring is just something fancy, but not really necessary. When the time comes that the battery runs low, you can check the battery status in office every month or so. Yes, with home monitoring you'd not have to go to the office that often, but hey, that's only when the battery is low, so maybe the last 3-6 months. And home monitoring costs, too. Maybe not as much as a visit to the cardio, but it does cost. And should something show up or should settings need to be changed, you have to go to the office anyways.

In Germany the normal pacemaker patient usually does NOT get a home monitor. Those who get it are mostly ICD and CRT patients. The benefits for those patients have been studied; those for the average pacer patient are not that convincing that insurance will pay for this permanent monitoring.

By the way, I like your cardio because he implanted an atrial pacemaker to treat your SSS, and not a dual-chamber. Very good! Most SSS patients do get dual-chamber pacemakers, although they don't really need them. Some of them even, mostly due to bad programming, end up being paced in the ventricles when they were originally diagnosed with nothing but a slow sinus node. In Scandinavia they implant lots of atrial pacemaker in sick sinus patients; unfortunately in the rest of the world, cardios too often go for the dual-lead and then argue that they want to be on the safe side just in case the patient should ever develop a heart block. There are no studies indicating that SSS patients ever do in fact develop a heart block, but still that's most cardios' argument.

So, if I were you, I'd not go for home monitoring. If you have SSS that also leads to chronotopic incompetence - inability of the sinus node to adjust the heart rate to your level of activity -, then you need a good rate response. Best rate response is one with two sensors, so either Sorin or Boston Scientific.

Why most cardios use the big brands? Very often they or the hospitals have contracts with certain manufacturers. Plus, many cardios implant only those pacemakers they know well or they like.

Best
Inga

Thank you!

by LIVE_STRONG - 2013-08-13 05:08:33

Thank you, Inga, Don and Tattoo Man..:)

Thank you Inga!

by LIVE_STRONG - 2013-08-13 10:08:47

Thanks so much for all the wonderful and detailed information. Gives me much to think about. While it sounds like Sorin would be a great choice, I am still hesitant with only one tech remotely close. (1 1/2 Hours) away.
But, I may need to check and see where the next closest one is :)
Boston Scientific nor Medtronic are options. My EP implants St Jude, Biotronik, and Sorin.

Thanks again!

Great pacemakers!

by golden_snitch - 2013-08-13 12:08:27

I have a Sorin Reply DR. It's a very nice piece of machinery. Small manufacturer, but great pacemakers. I have heard doctors say that only the good cardios know and value Sorin :) Sorin pacers have some very good algorithms other manufacturers don't have or don't offer in the combination that Sorin offers. For instance, Sorin offers a rate response with two sensors (only Boston Scientific does, too, all the other manufacturers don't) and, at the same time, has a very effective algorithm build in that reduces ventricular pacing (only Medtronic has this, too, but Medtronic doesn't have the dual-sensor rate response). My pacemaker also stores ECGs, for example of atrial or ventricular high rate episodes. It provides a heart rate histogram not only of the past 24hours, but of the past 7 days, things like that.

However, I know that Sorin is not well known in the U.S., and so it might indeed be difficult to find a Sorin rep nearby. Ask your cardio about it.

Best wishes
Inga

I was waiting for Inga to...

by donr - 2013-08-13 12:08:51

...chime in, knowing she has a Sorin.

My Cardio in Atlanta has one planted in a patient. He likes it very much &sings the same praises that Inga does.

Most of the rest of his PM's are Medtronic's.

Don

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