what are precautions with surgery

Hello. I am looking for some help from the knowledgable ones on here. I am headed on friday to a plastic surgeon to address my incision from my implanted loop recorder. It is all healed of course (was implanted february this year) but half the incision looks like it grew too much scar tissue and is now bulging up. They made the incision very close to the center of my chest and it looks horrible because it shows when I wear V neck tops. Anyways, I am suppose to see her friday and I have read that there can be some concerns with surgery, particularly the use of electrocautery. Can someone please educate me on this? I would like to be knowledgable about what to discuss with them. FYI I am 100% paced.

3 Comments

Precautions

by ElectricFrank - 2009-09-30 10:09:24

The electrocautery is definitely a problem. It passes current through the body which can be misinterpreted by the pacemaker and cause strange things to happen. That's probably the only thing to be concerned about. Otherwise, the surgery should involve about the same kind of slicing and dicing that an implant does.

My suggestion is to call Medtronics at the number on the ID card they gave you. I haven't personally talked to them, but have heard that they are very helpful from others on the forum.

frank

Surgery Precautions

by scadnama - 2009-10-01 10:10:34

During any type of surgery, a technician from the manufacturer of your pacemaker is present to make sure that everything goes smoothly. There are certain modes that they set the pacemaker in during surgery to keep you safe. Make sure your surgeon knows about your pacemaker, and they should take care of everything else.

Good luck!

Amanda

follow up

by sam78 - 2009-10-02 06:10:15

Well thankfully the surgeon is going to try a few things before he slices me up again. He did a steroid injection actually into the incision area (ouchie!!!!!). Will try this first and see if it helps. Good to have the knowledge about surgery though. Thanks for the information

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