Leads not lasting

Hello there my daughter recently had a new pacemaker fitted due to lead failure at Birmingham children's hospital we have seen other parents there with children with same issue is this a regular occurrence with pacemakers or are we just unlucky. I understand children grow but surly with how advanced we are with technology this shouldn't be an issue ??

3 Comments

Lead failure in children

by Selwyn - 2017-09-15 13:19:23

Children remain a problem! Both the length and the thickness of the lead needs to be age appropriate. Ideally, there should be enough length ( with an extra loop) for growth.  By 10-15 years after the implant, half the youngsters will need new leads. The overall failure rate is about 5-6% increasing as time goes on. 

The fact that one lead has failed does not increase the risk that the next lead will fail. 

In adults and children, there is always lead failure, the rate is increased with children. No one has developed a lead that grows! The best hope is that the lead when fitted has a lot of slack to allow for growth.  I specifically asked my fitting cardiologist to allow for the leads to be OK when my arm was fully extended when swimming front crawl. So far, so good!

Selwyn

Unlucky

by Pacemum - 2017-09-15 19:28:49

My daughter who is 17 has had a pacemaker most of her life and is only on her second set of leads.   Her first lead which was attached to the outside of the heart lasted seven and a half years was just sealed and left inside a few months after she had her second leads implanted through the vein which have been in place ever since. All her pacemakers and leads have been Medtronic and she has had no issues. She has only ever had the smaller Medtronic and they intend moving to a larger long lasting pacemaker at next box change towards the end of next year.

Most hospitals use the abdomen for really young children and coil the leads to allow for growth.

It should be a rare occurance even in children to have lots of problems although, children do face different issues to adults. . 

Unfortunately, the new wireless pacemakers are a number of years away from being considered to be used in the children.

 

Lead issues

by pearleamy - 2017-09-16 05:34:53

Okay thanks for the positive info,although the Birmingham children's have been fantastic I feel they made wrong decision in using the vein as it collapsed and now she can't use that vein on her left side again only her right side now which has made me more anxious & worried for my daughters future with only the one vein to use and god for bid if that went wrong she would have to have the more invasive approach through the abdomen 

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