Subtotal innominate vein occlusion after unsuccessful pacemaker implantation for resynchronization therapy.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy is increasingly used to treat patients with poor left ventricular function and asynchronous left ventricular contraction. Generally, a transvenous approach is used for implantation of pacing leads. However, coronary sinus lead implantation may be associated with various problems that may result in abandoning of the procedure. In this report a patient is described with subtotal innominate vein occlusion after such a procedure who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for implantation of epicardial left ventricular pacemaker leads for resynchronization therapy.