Boston scientific Accolade 301 pacemaker

My PM is 4 years 6monrhs old, and I'm being told that I only have 6 months more of battery life? Anyone else have similar experience. I've read that some  BS have accelwratwd depletion because of a "hydrogen" leak or something? I've never had any problem with it, have a few recorded episodes each 6 months but I feel nothing? I exercise moderate to vigorously. 

3 Comments

It's not uncommon to only get 5 years

by crustyg - 2020-08-20 03:40:16

I think the hydrogen-accelerated premature battery failure issue affected BostonSci more recently than your PM.

For some folk, depending on their lead impedances, pacing output voltage and pulse-width (==charge delivered from the battery with each pacing output) and amount of pacing, 5years may be all that you can expect.  The L301 is a standard battery model - BostonSci have the L331 which is a bigger battery version of the Accolade and which should give double the expected PM battery life.  It's quite a lot larger...

*IF* there has been a sudden reduction in projected battery life, that would tend to suggest a lead problem, unless you know that your pacing requirements also changed around the same time.

I have no personal experience of it yet, but many folk here say that a PM replacement is very straightforward: local anaesthetic, old PM out, new PM in, sutures and dressing and home.  Just occasionally it's not quite that simple, but in general it's a *lot* more straightforward than the initial PM implant + leads.

HTH.

YEs!

by PacedNRunning - 2020-09-13 22:30:14

Yes! Mine is an accolade L311 implanted August 2018. I have 2 years left!  Suspected on the battery depletion prematurely but wont know for sure until we change it out. We are waiting for it to hit ERI before we change it out.  Definitely something going on.  I have very low voltage and thresholds.  

Battery Life

by Ancient1914 - 2020-09-28 22:39:02

I had a new Boston ICD implanted 3 months ago and immediately it predicted a battery life of only 48 months. This is due to a poorly positioned RV lead also implanted at same time 3 months ago. My pacing voltage on this RV lead is 5.1V requiring greater batter use. This is my 4th ICD over 19 years.

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