Implantable cardiac electronic device infections: single center study

Implantable cardiac electronic device (ICED) infections include- lead infection (ICED-LI), device pocket infection (PI) and infective endocarditis (ICED-IE). The aim of this study is to analyze the records of patients with ICED, who developed implantable device-related infections. We analyzed retrospectively the records of the University Clinical Centre (Gdańsk) patients who in 2012-2018 underwent transvenous lead extraction (TLE) due to infections. In order to identify potential ICED infection risk factors we included patients who underwent any electrotherapy procedure within 2 years prior to the TLE. ICED infections that led to septic shock were defined as severe. The analyzed sample included 59 patients with infectious complications (37 male and 22 female) with median age of 74. The in-hospital mortality was 8.5%. All patients with severe ICED infection were diagnosed with ICED-LI, whereas the rest of the sample was diagnosed mostly with PI (p<0.001). The most commonly cultured pathogens were S. aureus and S. epidermidis. In the analyzed sample, the most common infectious complication related to the ICED was PI and the most common etiological agents were S. aureus and S. epidermidis. Severe ICED infections that present with septic shock are associated with a 50% in-hospital mortality rate.