4 cases of chest pains that developed after pacemaker lead implantation resolved by moving the leads in heart!
J Interv Card Electrophysiol. 2013 Dec 11. [Epub ahead of print]
Unusual chest pain syndromes caused by implanted cardiac device leads: a case series.
Witt CM, Best PJ, Asirvatham SJ, McLeod CJ.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24327083
- Usually pain aftetr chest lead implantation would suggest erosion or perforation ( on CT) of lead but these cases had none
- Pain types:
– constant sharp substernal, 3/10 severity, chest pain not aggravated by eating, breathing or position but exertional – initially low sternal but later higher in chest when moved
– localized midsternal; pain worse with recumbent and deep breath but different from prior angina – pleuritic
– squeezing central pressure with exercise though coronary angiogram normal
– Severe, sharp, “pinprick” sensation over the left chest - They found that “coronary sinus pacing location is potentially less problematic” – better position
Comment – they could not rule out micorperforation but thought heart was hypersensitive – ? maybe a wounded heart :)…
I’m thinking that no-one is going to read this; but I’ve found from experience that someone could really benefit from this knowledge… – hey, let me know…
I found it useful. I enjoyed your comment. Nurse
Thank you.
I had a pacemaker/defibralater installed a month ago. When I breath deeply ; I have chest pain on the left side . It varies from day to day and feels like a craked rib. Is this something to be concerned about?
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Tom,
sound more like a rib issue; injecting local into sore rib area, and see if ablates pain temporarily, could confirm
-admin
I had a pacemaker implanted 4 days ago. Last night I started having some chest discomfort, but more like in my lungs or sternum. It hurts to cough or breath deep like my chest feels pressure or heavy. My chest feels weighted when I lay down. It doesn’t seem like muscle pain and it doesn’t hurt to touch my chest above the area of discomfort. The area is more toward the center slightly left. Closer to where they removed the loop recorder. Sound concerning or typical?
Can you move the leads if you move wrong a couple weeks after surgery. My mom is feeling the sharp pain in left side when she moves around an walks.