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Heart Pacemaker battery replacement effects?
Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Oct 24 6:16am | Replies (5)Comment receiving replies
@jc76: My husband has a Medtronic Pacemaker. We meet with the cardiologist soon and I will get many questions answered. I assume they will replace it with a similar (but maybe updated model) Medtronic unit. Are there any pacemakers mfg that should be avoided or have a reputation of being the best? He wants the most efficient, reliable model. I have concern about the leads and if they are known to get contaminated or lose connectivity? Guess I am full of questions. Thank you for your posts. Best of health to you!
Replies to "@jc76: My husband has a Medtronic Pacemaker. We meet with the cardiologist soon and I will..."
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@dbamos1945
I have a Boston Scientific device. All 3 have been same manufacturer. I did receive a notice recently from Boston Scientific that some (not mine specifically) leads (wires) were being shown to becoming calcification. I am not sure what that is but my device is check every 3 month remotely by a system called latitude.
I go into pace clinic once a year for complete check. This where the check any impedience on wires and lower and up your pacing to make sure all is working right. After my remote checks I will get a portal message from Mayo Jacksonville going over the results of the remote test. Sometimes Pace Clinic will call or send me message on portal they want me to come in to check something they saw on the remote check.
Medtronic has a great reputation of being an excellent device. I have not heard of anything negative about it or their wires. I know with my Boston Scientific device and wires I had one wire that developed so much impedience during replacement of my device they disconnected that wire and put a new one in.
It is good to have questions. Write them down and when you meet with your cardiologist surgeon just go over them with him/her. You mentioned cardilogist. I assume that you are not seeing a electrophysioloigist (EP). That is a cardilogist that specializes in electrical functions of heart and experts in electrical fuctions, testing, devices, etc.
I would expect the time frame that your husband has had his first device has been in about 8-10 years. During that time period many upgrades, new devices, smaller and more efficent wires are manufactured. I would expect he would get a newer model of medtronic device. If your cardiologist or pace clinic is not informing you about that his is having any impedience on his wires that is very good and indicates his wires are in good shape.
I know when I got my first device back in 2006 my EP said he chose what was best at the time for me at the time. That was almost 20 years ago and they have gone through so many upgrades impossible to list all. The newest models are MRI compliant. Meaning you can have MRIs.
Mine was not during my last MRI nor was one of the wires. But I could still have a MRI they just turn off the shocking device and pacing to keep magnetic interference causing the pacemaker to do something when it was not needed.