Clinical Study Percutaneous Extraction of Transvenous Permanent Pacemaker/Defibrillator Leads

Copyright © 2014 Stylianos Paraskevaidis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Widespread use of cardiovascular implantable electronic devices has inevitably increased the need for lead revision/replacement. We report our experience in percutaneous extraction of transvenous permanent pacemaker/defibrillator leads. Methods. Thirty-six patients admitted to our centre from September 2005 through October 2012 for percutaneous lead extraction were included. Lead removal was attempted using Spectranetics traction-type system (Spectranetics Corp., Colorado, CO, USA) and VascoExtor countertraction-type system (Vascomed GmbH, Weil am Rhein, Germany). Results. Lead extraction was attempted in 59 leads from 36 patients (27 men), mean ± SD age 61±5 years, with permanent pacemaker