[gschmitt]

Has anyone here with an ICD or Pacemaker ever had this proceedure? Since my ICD is now over 7 years old it's time to think about the options as I have passed the expected battery life of the ICD.

Adele and I went to see my new cardio yesterday as he requested Adele to be there for this. My options are a new ICD with the present leads used or taking the entire thing out. The doc said that after he read my files about my recovery from bypass and the what he called amazing increase of my EF from 20 before bypass to 60 two months later and that number is still holding almost 8 years later. He looked through the medical library for a similar case file and after more than an hour gave up. He even stated that he didn't see why I got the ICD in the first place unless it was because of my reaction to the contrast dye during the cath. For the past three caths whenever the dye is injected I go into V-fib.

Adele and I are thinking about just having the works taken out as the longer the leads are in the more the risk when extracting them. After 15 years they have to be extracted anyway due to deterioration. My present cardio who is also my EP has done over 20 extractions without problems so I like those odds. The problem with removing the leads is that the heart and artery tissue grow and bind to the leads and the longer the leads are in the tighter the binding.

Right now as I said we are looking at the extraction but are doing some research and reading on this. This was also a suggestion by the new cardio.

[ireneo]

I understand that the heart tissue binds to the leads. That's why it's important not to swing your arms around after getting an ICD or pacer put in. I also know the leads can decay after awhile. But what I've heard is that they don't remove the leads but just clip them as close as possible and run fresh new leads in.

Is your cardio thinking of actually digging them out of the heart tissue then?

irene

[Denisefh]

From the reading I've done on this, it looks like quite a complicated situation. I know when I had my second heart surgery they had quite a time with adhesions. I wonder if taking out the leads, with the tugging and tearing involved, would have any effect on your heart's electrical conduction?

Good luck with this difficult decision.
Denise

[gschmitt]

Irene, the surgery is called laser lead extraction and the leads are cut out of the tissue by laser.

There is a one percent chance of any of the leads tearing tissue and causing bleeding that would need emergency surgery. I found that my previous cardio had done this extraction 12 time and there was a tear on six of these. Of these six, three died before the repairs could be made. The leads can not be clipped and must be removed as the deterioration starts after 15 years. This is one of the questions that I asked. So even if I had a new one put in the whole shebang would have to come out anyway in 7 years. That is why he stated the longer the leads are in the more complications when taking them out.

Also the cardio stated that if there was ever an infection that got into the blood (sepsis) the package and the leads would have to come out before they could treat the infection. This is due to the fact that any infection in the blood seems to go straight to the leads and processor.