Six years' experience with atrial leads.
This report describes a six-year experience with atrial leads consisting of 329 unipolar and 12 bipolar leads implanted in 302 patients. A variety of lead types were used: passive fixation with preformed J (including tines or fins in a solid electrode); porous tip electrodes with small tines, most of which were also preformed; active fixation leads (both straight and preformed); and finally bipolar leads, which were all preformed. No statistical differences were found between the P waves recorded from various unipolar leads. Similarly, there were no statistical differences found between voltage or energy thresholds between the different types of leads. The complication rate included 6.3% of early complications and 4.7% late complications for a total complication rate of 11%. This compares to a complication rate of 2% for ventricular leads. Thus, the complication rate of atrial leads is higher than ventricular leads; this must be considered when selecting a pacemaker system for a given patient.
D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D004582:Electronics, Medical; D004868:Equipment Failure; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006325:Heart Atria; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D006801:Humans; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial / Q000009:adverse effects