6 yr old with pacemaker

Hello,
I have a question for anyone with a pacemaker. My 6 year old son has had his pm since 2 months old due to heart block. He is currently on his 2nd device and now after having this one 5+ years he has developed a knot on top of the generator. It is located in his stomach. His dr thought it might be an infection but the knot is not getting smaller from the anibiotics. Some days it is tender to touch and at first it was redish purple. They have only done an xray and ecg but nothing shows up. Please help!!!
Heather H


1 Comments

May or may not be related?

by Stepford_Wife - 2007-09-10 01:09:20

Hi Heather.

I found these two articles which may or may not give a clue as to what is causing the appearance of the knot .
It might be worth investigating.
He may need more than an x-ray, to find out what is really going on.
Good luck in your search, and all my best wishes to your courageous little man.
Take care,

~ Dominique ~

Migration and colon perforation of intraperitoneal cardiac pacemaker systems.
Dodge-Khatami A, Backer CL, Meuli M, Prêtre R, Tomaske M, Mavroudis C.

Division of Congenital Cardiovascular Surgery, University Children's Hospital, Zürich, Switzerland. ali.dodge-khatami@kispi.unizh.ch

Epicardial pacemaker systems include pacing leads and a generator, which exceptionally may have to be implanted in the abdomen. We report three such pediatric cases where severe intraabdominal complications occurred owing to migration and erosion of the generators into visceral organs and urge extreme caution with this technique.

PMID: 17532441 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Peritoneal migration of an abdominally implanted epicardial pacemaker: a cause of intestinal obstruction.
Gomez C, Dick M 2nd, Hernandez R, Coran AG, Crowley D, Serwer GA.

C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.

We report the case of a 10-year-old child with an abdominally implanted epicardial pacemaker that eroded through the peritoneum and migrated to an intraperitoneal location, resulting in partial and then complete intestinal obstruction. This potentially life-threatening complication should be considered when a patient with an abdominally implanted pacemaker presents with abdominal pain.


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