Long-Term Follow-Up of Endocardial Pacing Leads Implanted with Extrathoracic Subclavian Venous Approach

The extrathoracic subclavian venous approach is a new approach with the aim to exclude the disadvantages of the conventional subclavian venous approach that carries a risk of pneumothorax and may result in lead damage. We investigated long-term survival of the leads implanted by this new approach between May 1995 and June 2005. A total of 482 leads implanted in 309 patients were analyzed. In cases of patient death, meeting criteria for lead failure or difficulty of continuing follow-up for other reasons, the follow-up was terminated at that time. Therefore, the follow-up was complete for 358 leads (74.3%) and the mean followup time was 55.0 ± 32.1 months (range 1–122 months). The overall lead survival rate was 100% at 5 years and 98.3% at 7 years. This finding suggested that this approach might reduce the incidence of lead failure.