Introduction
Over the last decades, the number of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) implanted has steadily increased as technological advances have allowed for a greater number of conditions to be treated with CIEDs (1,2). Long-term CIED implants are usually associated with a need to add or replace existing electrodes due to lead failure or need for device upgrade, with many patients having abandoned leads which increase the risk of infection and venous thrombosis. Moreover, implants are being performed in older patients with more comorbidities (3,4). This increase in implants and the use of devices in older, sicker patients have led to a higher number of device related infection and lead related complications (5,6). As such, there is an increasing need for lead extraction procedures (7,8). Although technological advances have allowed for safer and easier percutaneous lead extraction procedures, access to different tools and the high costs limit in many cases their widespread availability and as such their use varies in different institutions and countries.
Although several centers in Latin America perform lead extraction, objective data on current practice is lacking. In order to obtain information on the current lead extraction practice in Latin America, we performed this survey.