Implantable Cardiac Device Infections Prevalence: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Implications

Background: It has been demonstrated that the use of cardiac implanted electronic devices (CIED) improve mortality and survivability in a variety of patient populations. Nevertheless, CIED related infection is a serious complication characterized by a high rate of mortality and morbidity. Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of CIED related infections, risk factors, clinical and demographic characteristics, causative organisms, and the management and outcome of patients presented in the Critical Care Department, Cairo University. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted in 1871 individuals who had been implanted with a cardiac device with a total number of devices of 1968 and 2270 procedures performed from January 2007 to December 2017. Results: 59 infectious episodes were identified with an estimated incidence of 2.99% of inserted devices and 2.6% of total procedures. The infection rate was considerably higher in patients with multiple procedures than those who had a single procedure (9.27% vs. 1.18%; P<0.001). The individuals with a dual-chamber implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices (CRTD) had the highest infection rate of 6.25% the most significant of those are diabetes mellitus, recurrent procedures, the device's complexity, and the existence of more than one lead. Gram-positive cocci were the most isolated organisms in all positive cultures (69.23%). Echocardiography revealed lead vegetations and valvular vegetations in 22 patients and 2 patients respectively. In 53 cases (89.83%), the devices were removed; in 41 cases, the entire system was removed; and in 12 cases, only the generator was removed. The mortality rate was found to be 10.17%, having a considerably higher prevalence in CDE individuals than in pocket infection individuals (20.83% vs. 2.86%; P=0.025). Conclusion: In our center, while the rate of CIED implantation continues to increase, the incidence rate of CIED-related infection continues to decline. Until now, the infection burden associated with secondary intervention is still significantly high. The management strategy of selection is to eliminate the entire system for patients presented with infection especially those with CDE. However, the mortality rate is still high.