A Hearty Life

May 3rd, 2008

Benefits of ICD’s in children studied at length

More and more children with congenital heart disease are receiving implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) to maintain proper heart rhythm. ICDs were first introduced for adults in the 1980s, but little is known about how well they work in children, who account for less than 1 percent of recipients. A report in the April 29 Journal of […]

By Kendra James, RN -- 0 comments

April 26th, 2006

Removing Implanted Heart Device Poses Risks

Implanted cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) may be less likely to fail now than before, but still malfunction 20 times more often than pacemakers and need to be replaced an average of 26.5 months after initial implant. Replacing problematic ICD’s is no easy matter, a survey of Canadian ICD implanting centers found:
Re

5.8% of patients who had ICDs […]

By Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD -- 1 comment