Endocardial pacemaker or defibrillator leads with infected vegetations: a single-center experience and consequences of transvenous extraction.

Background: Removal of infected endovascular leads if often required for cure of systemic infection, but the perceived risk of embolic events in the presence of large (>10 mm) vegetations has been considered a relative contraindication to transvenous removal. Surgical removal of pacemaker leads has been suggested in this situation to avoid occurrence of pulmonary embolization.

Methods: Of 38 patients with infection of implanted pacemaker or cardioverter-defibrillator devices, those with evidence for systemic infection underwent transesophageal echocardiography to assess for the presence of vegetations.

Results: Vegetations on endocardial leads or right-sided cardiac structures ranging in size from 10 mm to 38 mm in their largest dimension were detected in 9 patients. All patients underwent successful transvenous removal of endocardial leads. Five of 9 patients (55%) had evidence of pulmonary embolism. However, all 5 patients made a full recovery with antibiotic treatment and anticoagulation. Among patients with endocardial vegetations, there was no difference in hospitalization periods between those with or without pulmonary embolism (14.6 +/- 0.8 days vs 18.0 +/- 4.5 days, P =.7).

Conclusions: Transvenous removal of infected pacemaker leads is an alternative to open-thoracotomy removal of infected leads. Fifty-five percent of patients with vegetations on endocardial leads in our series experienced pulmonary embolism, but neither survival nor length of hospital stay were affected by this complication.