Coronary Sinus Lead Fragmentation 2 Years After Implantation with a Retained Guidewire

Abstract

Cardiac Resynchronization therapy (CRT) using coronary sinus (CS) leads is an established method for the therapy of congestive heart failure (CHF) in the case of inter- and intraventricular conduction delays. However implantation of CS leads is somewhat challenging due to a high number of peri- or postoperative dislocations at a rate of about 10%. The retained guidewire technique has been proposed for the implantation of coronary sinus leads for stabilization in case of repetitive intraoperative dislocations. This report describes CS lead and guidewire fracture 2 years after such an implant.