New defibrillator works without wires touching heart

A new implantable defibrillator accurately detects abnormal heart rhythms and shocks the heart back into normal rhythm, yet has no wires touching the heart, new research shows. The device, called a subcutaneous implantable cardiac defibrillator (S-ICD), is placed under the patient's skin and has a wire under the skin along the left side of the breast bone. "The device detects life-threatening arrhythmias from normal rhythms, and once it notices the life-threatening rhythm it will automatically shock the heart back to its normal rhythm," said lead researcher Dr. Martin Burke, director of the Heart Rhythm Center at the University of Chicago. The advantage of the device is its durability - it lasts longer because there is not as much flexibility in the wiring, Burke said. Wires in standard implantable defibrillators need to be flexible to pass through blood vessels to the heart. "This makes the system enticing for younger patients who have risk of cardiac arrest who currently don't get standard systems because of [probable] failures of those systems over time," Burke said. "The heart beats 30 million times a year, and those beats put wear and tear on those wires." The research was paid for by the device's maker, Cameron Health Inc., and then by Boston Scientific Corp. after it acquired Cameron. The report was published online August 27 in the journal Circulation

Implantable defibrillators linked to decline in cardiac arrests (Netherlands)

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators - small devices placed in the chest to detect potentially fatal heart rhythms - reduce the number of cardiac arrests caused by ventricular fibrillation, a type of abnormal heart rhythm, according to a new study. Researchers in the Netherlands estimate that the cardioverter defibrillators prevented 81 cardiac arrests related to ventricular fibrillation between 2005 and 2008 in greater Amsterdam. They further estimate that the devices accounted for one-third of the decline seen in cardiac arrests caused by ventricular fibrillation between 1995 and 2008. The study was published August 6 in Circulation

New life-saving device offered to heart patients at Watford General Hospital (UK)

Heart patients at Watford General Hospital can now benefit from the very latest life-saving technique after the arrival of one of the country's leading cardiac surgeons. Consultant cardiologist Dr Anthony Nathan, who arrived just three weeks ago to head the hospital's new heart attack centre, has brought with him a cutting-edge procedure capable of saving dozens of lives a year - the implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD)