Abstract
One of the hazards of endocardial cardiac pacing is that the pacemaker lead may perforate the myocardial wall or interventricular septum although the incidence of such perforations is believed to be small. This paper describes what is believed to be a unique case in which a pacemaker lead perforated the atrial wall at implantation (or possibly shortly afterwards) and yet gave satisfactory right ventricular epicardial pacing for more than five years. The perforation was discovered during a routine postmortem examination but earlier lateral x-ray examinations would probably have identified the abnormal position of the electrodes. Moreover, the present implantation technique would not have allowed perforation of the atrial wall at implantation to go undetected.
Full text
PDF
Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Berman D. A. Puzzling pacemaker problems. Minn Med. 1975 Oct;58(10):725–728. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Chardack W. M., Gage A. A., Federico A. J., Schimert G., Greatbatch W. Five years' clinical experience with an implantable pacemaker: an appraisal. Surgery. 1965 Nov;58(5):915–922. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Grogler F. M., Frank G., Greven G., Dragojevic D., Oelert H., Leitz K., Dalichau H., Brinke U., Lohlein D., Rogge D. Complications of permanent transvenous cardiac pacing. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 1975 Jun;69(6):895–904. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- SCHWEDEL J. B., FURMAN S., ESCHER D. J. Use of an intracardiac pacemaker in the treatment of Stokes-Adams seizures. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 1960 Sep;3:170–177. doi: 10.1016/s0033-0620(60)80080-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sorkin R. P., Schuurmann B. J., Simon A. B. Radiographic aspects of permanent cardiac pacemakers. Radiology. 1976 May;119(2):281–286. doi: 10.1148/119.2.281. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]