best place to go for pm lead removal?

My husband has had a PM for 33 years and has leads in both sides of his chest. For past year, progressive intermittent swelling of face & neck only. Doc is doing CT to check for superior vena cava syndrome. May need to remove leads to allow better circulation back to heart. We are in Buffalo, NY, but don't know if we would be better off to go to Cleveland Clinic if he needs the leads removed (?laser). Has anyone done this? Sure would be nice to know safest place to go.

5 Comments

Thanks for your input----now to fight with insurance company to let us travel to Cleveland Clinic! Any magic words??

by eidona - 2012-01-03 03:01:58

The health insurance provider will undoubtedly resist covering travel to Cleveland Clinic (I'm just anticipating), but wonder if there are best persuasive arguments I could use?

eidona

by walkerd - 2012-01-03 06:01:20

Cleveland Clinc has one of the top cardio clinic in the US as far as I know, thier website is very helpful and very good to browse around. There are also numbers to call and they are, in my experience to talking to them, very very helpful. If I had to have a lead removed it would only be by someone or a place that has done them before with success, and you can find that out also. Just my two cents which is about all my advice is worth lol. But I know if I like I said needed them removed it would only be done where they have successfully done them before.
good luck
dave

Fairfax, VA

by navy_bill - 2012-01-17 01:01:28

I had my pacer and stent surgery at Fairfax Hospital in VA which has one of the highest rated cardio clinics in the US. You might want to give them a nod too. If you need a place to stay and are not bothered by a cat, give me a holler.

Buffalo, NY, appreciates you!

by eidona - 2012-01-19 01:01:24

Thanks to navy_bill for generous info & offer of hospitality. Amazing kindness. We just returned from Cleveland Clinic and had evaluation. Turns out that my husband's original leads are fragmented and might be complicated to extract if it became necessary. The old leads were "capped off" & "abandoned" and had some infection which seemed successfully treated back in 2004. Now had developed some thrombus (clot) in vein where leads enter heart. Is on Coumadin (after doing Lovenox for 2 weeks) and symptoms are 80% better. Hoping to avoid the lead-extraction surgery if at all possible. Have any of you had these issues?
Thanks again to all who take the time to give info.
It helps a lot.

jack

by jhall - 2012-01-26 01:01:50

cold i hear in buffalo , sounds like you have issues . just to let you know ,I have been 100% paced total av block since 91' ,am on 5th device at 62 years . aug of 11 had 2 leads laser extracted due to tip defects .replaced with bi-ventricular attached to outside of heart .had been told 2 yrs ago couldn't be done on me. progress yes . doing great so far ,procedure done in Houston at va hosp , lots and lots of very experienced docs in houston. Lots of exp with pacers/defib if i can help

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