Epicardial left ventricular lead for cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy is now recognized as an effective and safe therapeutic modality in heart failure patients and leads to a reduction in mortality and morbidity. Today, transvenous implantation is considered to be the gold standard for lead placement. However, transvenous LV lead implantation fails in 2-10% of patients undergoing the implantation procedure. In these cases surgical LV lead implantation is preferred. The present article reviews LV pacing lead implantation strategies in cases where standard transvenous implantation failed.