Late cardiac perforation: a persistent risk of cardiac implantable device leads

Abstract

Lead perforation is a rare complication of implantable cardiac devices. Late lead perforation is defined as the one occurring after 30 days of implantation. Majority of these cases of lead perforation occurs within 1 year of implantation. We report a case of lead perforation which was managed by percutaneous transvenous removal in the operating room with a cardiac surgery team kept on standby and present a detailed review of existing literature on this rare but interesting problem.