Medronics (MRI Compatible) PM only lasted 2 Years

On New Years Eve 2011, very unexpectedly and quite out of the blue, I went into complete heart block at the age of 52. En route to hospital (in the ambulance) they started externally pacing me. I arrived at the hospital at 12 midnight and was externally paced for the next 4 hours until stable enough to have temporary PM placed. Then on Jan 2, 2012 had a Medtronic Revo MRI compatible PM inserted.

On Dec 6, 2013, I awoke during the night feeling absolutely dreadful. After many tests, CAT scans and echos etc. it came back to the PM - it had gone into a safe mode to save battery power. On New Years Eve 2013 (just under 2 years) I had the next and newer version of this PM placed.

Has anyone else experienced such a short PM life? I expected it to last about 7 to 12 years.

5 Comments

Response to Duke

by AnnieRHolland - 2014-02-20 07:02:29

Hello Duke

I know I am 100% dependent on my PM. My complete heart block prevents the electrical message from the atrium from getting through to the ventricles. So my atrium does beat for itself but less than 30 BPM get through to the ventricles.

I do have a rate response ON so that when my atrium heart rate increases due to exertion then the PM picks up the pace for the ventricles.

I also know that I have the lowest setting for the impedance of the leads.

Medronics are interrogating the "old" Revo PM as everyone (Docs, nurses and the Medronics techs) seemed very surprised that the "old" PM had gone in to the End of Life mode inside just two years - hence looking at all manner of other ideas as to why I was feeling so dreadful. We are awaiting the report. I will share the findings when I know them.

I was just wondering if anyone else at all had the same experience. Perhaps I just had so much fun in those 2 years that I burnt the battery out or perhaps I had a defective one in the first place.

I now have a Advisa MRI™ SureScan Pacing System in place.

Best wishes

Annie


I have the same question

by Duke999 - 2014-02-20 07:02:50

Hi Annie, it's just a coincident that you post your question when I was just thinking of it. I have the same PM as yours. I had installed on March 2013, my model is Medtronics Revo MRI RVDR01. They currently and recently turned on the APP (Atrial Preference Pacing) and ATP (Antitachycardia Pacing) features to treat Afib and Tachycardia. I learned that those features do eat up power. What kind of features did you have them turned "On" for your case? Perhaps and I'm just guessing, that if the more features you have them "On", the shorter lifespan of PM battery. I don't know if that's the case or not because 2 years is incredibly short. I'm interested to know what the real reason is. I hope other members do have answers.

I wish you well.

Duke

answers

by Tracey_E - 2014-02-20 08:02:29

I had one last two years, but a lead was bad. They had to turn the juice up to get the signal through. I knew all along it wasn't going to last as long as it should because the rep saw the lead problem and told me about it.

Heart block typically paces 100% ventricles. That shouldn't affect the battery life that profoundly. Battery life is only partially how much we use it, it's also all the bells and whistles, the safety margins, how much signal your heart needs to make it beat.

You should not need rate response, though it's not uncommon to leave it on assuming we won't use it. I prefer to have it turned off because sometimes it can compete with our natural sinus rate. RR is for atrial pacing. Usually with av block our sinus node (nature's pacemaker) in the atria works normally so we don't need atrial pacing. Ventricular pacing means the pm watches for when the atria beats. It gives the ventricles a fraction of a second to beat after the atria, if it doesn't it kicks in with a beat. Cardiac follow the leader.

Rate response is for when your ATRIAL rate doesn't go up adequately on exertion. It senses movement and raises your rate for you if it doesn't do it on its own. The ventricular lead doesn't care if the atrial beat is natural or paced. If the ventricles don't beat when atria does, it'll pace up to the upper limit.

My guess is defective. If something odd was going on, it would show up in the pm interrogations when they figured out it was EOL. At the risk of sounding cynical, I suspect they already know what caused it but for liability reasons aren't saying.

Mod

by Mod - 2014-08-09 05:08:16

Just got a CRT-P in June 2014. First week choke up they said all was great. One month ck up they said third lead could not be placed correctly and it was using the PM's battery power to the pint it would need to be replaced in1.5 years. So they turned it off and said come back in six weeks. If the two leads aren't enough they will go in thru the side of my chest and place a new lead on top of my heart over the left ventrical then thread the other end up into the CRT-P, disconnect the first one and connect this one. Supposedly one night in the hospital. Why wait is my question. They obviously thought I needed that third lead.
They turned it on. Apparently placing that third lead can be difficult on about 10% of the patients. Has anyone heard of this?

Mod

by Mod - 2014-08-09 05:08:30

Totally bummed. Surgery went well, was back to work in five days and really was beginning to feel better and better. They just shut it down three days ago.

You know you're wired when...

You’re officially battery-operated.

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