Atrial lead will not stay in place

Has anyone with a new pacemaker had recent issues with the MRI safe atrial lead by Medtronic? My atrial lead will not stay in place in my heart. I am scheduled to have my 3rd attempt since April to have my atrial pacemaker lead implanted.

4 Comments

Response to Interesting

by bamafan - 2011-08-23 03:08:25

My lead displacement is evident on x-ray and on echo. The lead is dangling in the atrium. The symptoms I have are involuntary twitching in my right lower breast/diaphragm area.

I have had 3 doctors tell me now that I should not wait to have the leads repositioned. I have been advised that the longer I wait, the more scar tissue forms (in the wrong place) around the lead.

Interesting

by devonstarr - 2011-08-23 04:08:10

I just had mine placed (Medtrnic MRI SureScan) on 8/17. Went in today to have it checked because even before I left hospital I was having symptoms of a twitching in my lower right breast precisely where my heart beats. At the hospital they could not determine what it was and took x-rays to determine that the leads were "in the right place". The x-rays were taken after the symptoms and therefore when they took x-rays again today, it was determined that the leads did not move from placement at last x-ray so no need to go back in to replace the lead. Even still, the top lead is the one giving me trouble so the docs turned my pm rate down to 45 bpm from 50 bpm so I would not feel the twitching as intensely in hopes that it is just swelling and will go away in a weeks time. Now the daily dizziness which prompted the pm in the first place is back.

I would rather them go in and fix it right now than wait any longer, but doc says they do not want to be too hasty.

Now I am wondering the same as you, who else has this same pm and having the same issue(s)?

Response to Interesting

by Lcbeagle - 2011-08-24 06:08:55

Had my surescan put in in June - have had a burining sensation off and on around pm since. Doc says its the healing process and I am 2 1/2 mos out. Have you had any of that? So sorry about your lead displacement - hope all goes well in the end.

Me, too!

by iamsrg - 2011-11-04 12:11:21

I'm about to have my 6 month check up and I was going to mention to my physician that something feels wrong with this pacemaker. I have has intermittent, chronic "chest pain" and I was also one that had to have the lead retrieved and re-attached after the Revo was put in because it came loose shortly after my PM was inserted. I ended up with pericarditis and a pericardial effusion as a result of a previous lead extraction and the extra one I had with the Revo insertion. The last check of the PM was about 4 months ago when I had an MRI and no mentioned that the lead was displaced then. Do you think there will be a recall on the Revo? My EP doc said the Revo has an unusual lead attachment that she felt made them prone to coming out.

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It is just over 10 years since a dual lead device was implanted for complete heart block. It has worked perfectly and I have traveled well near two million miles internationally since then.