Cardiopulmonary Bypass Standby Avoids Fatality Due to Vascular Laceration in Laser-assisted Lead Extraction

Objectives: Vascular laceration is a rare but potentially fatal complication with excimer laser-assisted pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator lead extraction. We report our experience on management of vascular laceration during laser-assisted lead extraction.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 140 consecutive patients undergoing laser-assisted lead extraction from May 2004 to March 2011. Clinical outcomes were compared in patients with and without intraoperative vascular laceration. Risk factors were identified by multivariate logistic regression.

Results: All cases were performed in the operating room with cardiopulmonary bypass standby. Complete lead removal was achieved in 118 (84.3%) patients. Potentially fatal complications occurred in five patients (3.6%) who had superior vena cava and/or innominate vein laceration. Lacerated veins were repaired under emergency sternotomy and cardiopulmonary bypass. The mean time from vascular laceration to establishment of cardiopulmonary bypass was 6.0 ± 3.6 minutes. All five patients survived without neurological sequelae. The rates of dual-coil leads (80.0% vs. 31.9%, p=0.025) and history of lead revision (100.0% vs. 40.0%, p=0.008) were significantly higher in the five patients who had major vascular laceration than those who did not. Logistic regression showed that dual-coil implantable cardioverter-defibrillator lead was an independent risk factor for vascular laceration (odds ratio 11.264, p=0.048).

Conclusion: Cardiopulmonary bypass standby is helpful when performing laser-assisted lead extraction to treat potentially fatal vascular laceration. Dual-coil lead is an independent risk factor to predict intraoperative vascular laceration.