Introduction: The cardiac leads may induce fibrous tissue reactivity and produce the fibrous sheath along its course. Residual fibrotic tissue can be diagnosed especially by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) examination after transvenous leads extraction (TLE).
Materials and Methods: We analysed (2011-2012) 589 patients after TLE: male 61,8%, female 38,2% in average age 64,4 ± 16,5 y. The reason of TLE was: needless leads -57,1%, pocket infection -25,8%, lead dependent infective endocarditis (LDIE) 17,1%.
All patients had transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, (iE 33 PHILIPS) before and after PM/ICD TLE.
Results: We found fibrous tissue debris after TLE in 95 patients (16,1 %). Mean length was 28,1 mm (from 4 mm to 80 mm). The form of these structures reflected the lead shape.
Conclusions: 1.TEE is very useful in identification of residual fibrotic tissue after TLE
2. The most common localization of fibrous tissue debris is superior vena cava near orifice (50% of patients)
3. Fibrotic debris (reflecting lead course) may be localized in any place of the right heart.
4. The knowledge about residual fibrous tissue incidence is important to avoid misdiagnosis .