"QUICK, Griselda! Your dad's having a heart attack. Pull the defibrillator out of the dashboard and bring it here! Quick, honey!"
"But mom, the car battery is dead. We didn't plug it in last night."
Posted on 05/27/2023 5:31:03 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
About 3 million Americans live with cardiovascular pacemakers. But over time, scar tissue or blood clots can form around the leads, or wires, that carry the electrical impulses from the pacemaker to the heart.
Scar tissue or clots may hinder the flow of blood, potentially resulting in swollen extremities or pain. However, the incidence and clinical impact of such lead-related venous obstruction, or LRVO, among patients with pacemaker devices is not well characterized.
Physician-researchers found that the incidence of symptomatic LRVO among patients implanted with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices to be four times higher than previously reported—with only a minority of patients being treated with an intervention.
The researchers also determined independent predictors of the complication as well as typical interventions and their outcomes.
The researchers found that five percent developed LRVO within five years.
Patients who also had chronic kidney disease or anemia had a higher prevalence of LRVO. When the researchers looked at characteristics that predicted the development of LRVO, they observed that patients whose devices had more than one lead were also at greater risk for developing LRVO, as were patients with anemia, malignancies or who were non-white.
Further, investigators showed that more than 85 percent of patients who developed LRVO were treated conservatively — treated without intervention. Among the 15 percent who underwent an invasive intervention, three-quarters had their pacemakers removed.
"Our findings showed an association between extraction of cardiovascular implantable electronic devices and a subsequent significant reduction in LRVO-related healthcare utilization, compared to conservative management," said Peter J. Zimetbaum, MD.
Among the patients who had their devices removed, just over two percent received leadless pacemakers, which would be expected to eliminate the risk of LRVO because they are directly implanted within the heart, without the need for leads, and is associated with reduced scarring.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
I wonder how much of this is other factors coming into play.
Blood clots, eh?
Sounds familiar......
With all the noise about EV’s not wanting to have AM radios because of the signals being emitted by the car, I have wondered if there is any effect on pacemakers? Has any science been developed to follow about that?
"QUICK, Griselda! Your dad's having a heart attack. Pull the defibrillator out of the dashboard and bring it here! Quick, honey!"
"But mom, the car battery is dead. We didn't plug it in last night."
This is particularly interesting. My husband had a cardiovascular/defibrillator implanted for eight years. Never had one event or blip, just weeks before during a checkup his cardiologist even commented that it might not have been necessary. In 2009 He sold a large HYBRID Cadillac Escalade SUV to a good friend and went to the service area to make sure it was perfect for delivery. The large battery area was open and he leaned in to look, almost immediately his defibrillator went off and and subsequently another eighty times until he got to the ER. A long story but eight months later he had a heart transplant. . It might have been a coincidence that he was very close to the the battery compartment when it happened, we always thought it had something to do with it, did a little research and there were a few studies at the time that alluded to possible issues.
I had my pacemaker with two leads for five years last November. In August, my cardiologist had ordered up an echocardiogram to check for circulation problems in my heart, because he was concerned there might be scarring from the constant electrical shocks.
I can't tell you how sorry I am about this. I've been defibrillated a few times and it hurts like hell. LIKE HELL!!! I was recently defibrillated externally (maybe unnecessarily.) in the ER and that hurt even worse. Unbelievable pain! On a scale of 1-10, it was about a 30.
Was he conscious during all of those 80 defibrillations? So, I really feel sorry for your husband. It's hard to know if leaning into the battery compartment had anything to do with it or not. If you can prove it there might be a legal case.
I’ve had a pacemaker with three leads for 5 years and taking Eliquis to prevent blood cloths. So far, so good.
Thanks so much! Yes he was conscious during the ride to the ER and it was, as you know, horrible. He was in an area that was about thirty miles from his major hospital in Columbus, so he opted for that rather than the hospital closer. They thought there must have been some malfunction of the defibrillator, but not to be. He underwent an ablation several weeks later, and at that time replaced the battery, put him on Coumadin with instructions to have blood work check levels by our general practitioner, which he did and did not hear anything so we assumed all was ok. Two days later he began seeping blood. Called for info and his Coumadin level was over 11, should have been 2. So the site became infected and septic. As we found out, the lab requested a “critical call back” from the doc, which never happened, it was overlooked. Anyway, they could not implant a new defibrillator, so he was in his own and in the hospital most of six months due to Ventricular Tachycardia, a deadly rhythm, which they would manually defibrillator him. Finally, he was placed on the transplant list as an A1 recipient and two weeks later had a new heart. That was thirteen years ago and he hasn’t looked back, so grateful, lives a full life without any major complications.
We were furious with the doctors office regarding the missed Coumadin read back. We consulted with an attorney, because to us, it was absolute malpractice. The attorney researched and said it was terrible what happened but to forget about a lawsuit regarding Coumadin, because it is almost impossible to prove that it was responsible.
Stay well and hope some of this info might help others.
For what’s its worth, I’ll describe my experience: My history - I was a distance runner in high school and college and more or less more on than off later. I was having some sort of fainting spells usually before my morning run. I was able to reduce their effects by going down on my knees and recovering. My doctor had me do an electrocardiogram and said that extra pulse shouldn’t be there and he set me up with a cardiac doctor to do an ablation. I went in for the procedure and he recommended that I sign a release so that he could install a pacemaker if necessary (about Thanksgiving 2007). I went home with a pacemaker. In 2017 the new cardiologist installed an upgraded model with a defibrillator.
One morning about 2 miles from home, bc - before covid I came too just past a turn. I had a broken tooth, sprained thumb, skinned knee and elbow. I walked the rest of the way home. The next morning I got a call from the device clinic. They asked if I knew that my defibrillator had gone off. I said “No”.
(Pause for reflection on the intelligence of morning runners.)
The next day or at least within the next week or so, out on the morning run, I felt dizzy, I dropped to my knees, but the defibrillator high voltage circuit had kicked in. It can be best described as an electronic vibrator which produces a high voltage for the defibrillator action. Once it starts going, there is nothing you can do to stop it. The shock came and the best I can describe it - it was like an electric fence shock. Growing up on the farm with two older brothers, this was not my first exposure to such.
Wonder if this is occurring more often in CoupFlu vaxxed patients...
After these poor patients had their pacemakers removed, the study reports no further incidence of LVRO (bad things happening due to pacemaker leads)...
Which begs the question unasked and unanswered: “so how many of the now pacemaker -less patients with no further LVRO lived”?
Pacemakers are saving lives. Geez, is context unnecessary to the science writers?
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