14 April 2020

Jan MacPherson
[FYI request #12554 email]

Tēnā koe Jan

Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-004442
Thank you for your request of 31 March 2020, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):

Please advise how many covered injuries and what they are, that have been caused by surgery to
insert a pacemaker between 2010 and the present date

Background about treatment injury claims
As you wil be aware from previous responses, ACC has provided cover for Treatment Injuries since
1 July 2005. For further background information about treatment injury claims, I refer you to our
response of 23 July 2019 (GOV-000495).

Notes about the data provided
The data provided was extracted for accepted treatment injury claims related to pacemaker surgery,
where the cover decision was made between 1 January 2010 and 30 March 2020. The data is provided
in calendar years. It was extracted on 4 April 2020 and may differ if extracted again at a later date.

Claims related to pacemaker surgery
Claims related to pacemaker surgery have been identified where the procedure resulting in the covered
injury was identified as cardiac pacemaker. The figures do not include other cardiac procedures that
may have involved the use of temporary pacemakers/temporary pacing wires, for instance coronary
artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) procedures.

Text search methods were also used to identify some claims. As such, it is possible that some pacemaker
surgery claims may not be included in the data provided. Therefore, the figures should be considered
indicative only.

The tables provided
Between 1 January 2010 and 30 March 2020, ACC has accepted 145 treatment injury claims related to
cardiac pacemaker surgery. Table 1 shows the number of accepted claims by the year the cover decision
was made. Table 2 shows the number of accepted claims by primary injury group. Other injuries include
perforations of muscle/blood vessels, migration of wires and skin damage.

                                                                                                                                                GOV-004442

Table 1: Accepted claim count for treatment injuries resulting from pacemaker surgery by calendar
year
Year
Claim count
2010
5
2011
7
2012
8
2013
7
2014
16
2015
17
2016
16
2017
20
2018
28
2019
17
2020*
4
Total
145
*to 30 March 2020
Table 2: Accepted claim count for treatment injuries resulting from pacemaker surgery, by primary
injury group
Primary injury group
Claim count
Infection
49
Pneumothorax
21
Haematoma
18
Venous Thromboembolism/Femoral Artery Thrombosis
11
Nerve Damage/Injury
7
Cardiac Injury/Damage
7
Strain/Sprain
5
Damage/Malfunction to Prosthetics/Implant
5
Other Injuries
22

How to contact us
If you have any questions, you can email me at [email address].

Nāku iti noa, nā

Sasha Wood
Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement & Support
Accident Compensation Corporation
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