Arm swelling

I have had a Medtronic defibrillator installed in November 2014. On Monday Feb 16th, 2015, my left arm swelled up considerably from the shoulder all the way to the hand . The arm was a reddish colour, with the hand turning almost blue.
Saw my GP, who ran blood tests for infection, ultra sound for blood clots, CT scan for blood clots. All turning up negative. However, neither the ultrasound nor the CT scan could get a view behind the defibrillator.
Any advice on what to do next ?

1 Comments

Venography

by golden_snitch - 2015-02-21 04:02:33

Hi!

Probably get a venography done where contrast dye is injected into a vein in your left arm, and then being followed by x-ray. The thing with the CT is that you get metal artefacts from the defibrillator and the leads, so you don't get a proper view of the vein in which the defibrillator lead is placed. Does not mean that the CT was a waste of time and money. It can be helpful - I had vena cava superior obstruction and the CT showed this clearly, despite one pacemaker lead in the vein -, but all your symptoms indicate that there is a blockage somewhere, and a venography gives you a clearer picture.

Is your arm still swolen? You said, you had the swelling on January 16th, but not that it's still swolen. If it has resolved on its own, I'd probably leave it for now, and only investigate further, if it happens again. If all is well now, even a venography might show nothing.

Best wishes!

Inga

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