A broken lead to an open heart: implantable cardioverter defibrillator vegetations with lead fracture

oleh: George Horani, MD, Kevin Hosein, MD, Rahul Kumar, MD, Fayez Shamoon, MD

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2021-11-01

Deskripsi

Implantable cardiac devices are widely used devices that serve several purposes. Complications from devices are not uncommon and include localized or systemic infections, device-related endocarditis, and device malfunction leading to serious outcomes, including death. Another possible complication that has been reported in the literature is thrombus formation on the device leads. We present a rare case of large thrombi forming on the leads of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator leading to lead fracture and device malfunction. After the device alerted for malfunction, the patient underwent a transesophageal echocardiogram which demonstrated masses on the right atrium and ventricle. He subsequently had a right atrial exploration and lead extraction which revealed large thrombi on the leads which histologically were identified as sterile vegetations.