Aspergillus infection of a permanent ventricular pacing lead.

Fungal infections of intracardiac pacemakers are extremely rare. We describe what appears to be the first reported case of Aspergillus infection of a permanent pacing lead and review the three reported cases of other fungal infections of pacemaker leads which we could find in the literature. These infections may be encountered more frequently as the number of permanent pacemakers implanted in elderly patients with underlying medical illnesses continues to increase.