title: Easy surgical approach for completion of biventricular pacing.
abstract: Placement of a pacing lead into a branch of the coronary sinus for biventricular pacing sometimes is difficult or impossible. Surgical completion typically has included immediate or subsequent thoracotomy lead placement with hookup to the device at the time of chest surgery. We describe an alternative procedure of complete device-lead hookup and permanent pocket closure in the electrophysiology laboratory. The left ventricular lead is an epicardial type. The lead is tunneled to a position where the surgeon subsequently can recover it using the thoracotomy incision and implant the lead on the epicardium using device-based testing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, Arrhythmia and Heart Failure Services, Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10467, USA. jfisher@montefiore.org
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Soo G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kevin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Ferrick
authors.forename: Eugen C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Palma
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Crooke
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moskowitz
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lejemtel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial / Q000379:methods*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013908:Thoracotomy