Fractally coated myocardial pacemaker leads in children

We report our single centre experience with a new fractally coated myocardial unipolar lead (ELC35UP; Biotronik) in 96 pediatric patients (59% male, 41% female). Congenital heart disease (CHD) was associated in 89%. The age at implantation ranged between 2 days and 19 years, median for children with CHD 7.8 years, without CHD 4.7 years. Twenty percent of the children were younger than one year at implantation. Mean follow-up was 30 months (1-57 months). We compared our findings with a steroid eluting epicardial lead (CapSure EPI 4968; Medtronic) in 46 children with comparable age and sex-distribution. We found a lead survival of 87% after 57 months in the ELC35UP group (steroid lead: 87% after 129 months). Pacing energy thresholds were equal after 12 months (median 3.0 microjoules), but the sensing characteristics of the fractally coated lead was significantly superior to the steroid eluting lead with median R waves of 7.0 mV (steroid lead: 3.5 mV) after 12 months. Children with myocardial scar tissue requiring pacemaker therapy after surgery of CHD showed no differences in sensing and pacing thresholds in comparison to children with congenital rhythm disorders. The fractally coated screw-in lead offers technical advantages concerning the subxiphoidal implantation procedure. Fractally coated ventricular screw-in leads represent a feasible alternative to the common steroid eluting leads- especially in children requiring pacemaker therapy after surgery for CHD.