New Device Treats Common Heart Rhythm Disorder

Re Atritech's Watchman - Let the Patient Beware

I have a Watchman device in my left atrial appendage that has moved twice and now projects into the left atrial lumen from where it threatens the mitral valve and the atrial wall itself. I am scheduled for serious on-pump open heart surgery to remove this faulty equipment. I was never warned that this might be such a risk – other than the meaningless mumbo-jumbo “informed consent” statements put on everything medical. There are others also unreported and I encourage them to come forward. This is a high-risk process and not to be entered into lightly. In the meantime, two atrial ablations have cleared up my arrhythmia - so the Watchman with its trailing razor-sharp barbs are poised to slice open my heart, destroy my mitral valve and cut open any artery it can get into – for no purpose at all. One patient's device got "lost" and was found in her abdominal aorta. Go figure.

Nigel Grant, Solicitor, England & Wales; Attorney at Law, California.

Watchman Device

I watch my diet and yet the pro-time will at times get out of hand causing me to have a weekly check .

If I recall correctly This device as stated in the article was evaluated with 10.000 patients in Europe, That seems to me as a fairly good sampling of the device and/or any problems associated with it .

I would be happy to eliminate the Warfarin and also wonder about the life time cost of Warfarin as opposed to the cost of this device of course the side effects etc., of Warfarin also have an intrinsick value .

I also have a balance problem and have fallen several times which would also be an insentive to use Watchman.

Good Article - Thank You

look who is talking

The study is published by the makers of the device and there is no call mortality figure on this. Once placed this device stays there and if issues, tough luck even long term results will show complications. I would never put myself or my family through such treatments.I will wait until until more people had this done and results look good. One thing my family learnt is never jump on the band wagon for new stuff when there are proven treatments available. Remember VIOXX, AVANDIA disasters.

A Fib

Why are we going to a very expensive procedure when the darling FDA rejected the best alternative - Exanta?

No one ever died from Exanta after 10 years use in Europe but 1000s die every year from warfarin.

Of course the warfarin clinics all over the country would lose billions of dollars if warfarin disappeared.

Looks like a case of bonus money for the medical centers!

irregular hearbeat

Interesting article! I have an irregular heartbeat, low cholesterol, low BP, and am at "low risk/ not serious", yet have been prescribed Toprol--yet to take it as I prefer to try EDTA first. Several friends have had a similar condition and have had good results. Any comments on EDTA related to irregular heartbeat? Thanks.

watchman heart device

Once again, a gushing medical announcement that is missing the most important piece of information. What is the all cause death rate? I don't care if the device reduces the probability of stroke by 40% if the it also increases my chance of a heart attack or cancer by 60%. In short, I don't care what they write on my death certificate, I just want the date a long way off and to have the ability to enjoy a healthy fulfilling life until then.

I will note that the test being reported was paid for by Atritech, the manufacturer of the device, and did not include all cause death as an outcome to be measured. Shame on them.

AF prevention

i've got a lot of patients on warfarin. as many people know, warfarin is derived from rat poison, which is why it requires close monitoring, since many medications and even dietary changes can increase or decrease the anti-clotting effect. i've had a patient who developed a bleed after going on a cruise and *not* eating a lot of salads - the vitamin K in the salad was preventing some of the blood-thinning effect of the warfarin.

if this device is as effective as reported in larger trials, it would be a very attractive option for many, many patients. the cost, inconvenience and discomfort of having PT/INR blood tests once or twice a month becomes more significant the longer folks keep getting them - which may be for many years.

it would also be a very attractive option for elderly people whose balance isn't good - as it is now, we have to weigh the risk of dangerous bleeding after a fall with the benefit of reducing stroke risk.

if this turns out to be safe and effective over the long run, it may largely replace anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation. note: i have *not* read the original research - this is only in response to the news story above. YMMV.

New Device Treats Atrial Fibrillation

From Atrial Fib patient-- Relevant question from persons with AF concerning those that have already had previous "ablation procedure" operations for their AF: What is the efficacy for these patients to now have the "implanted device" instead of warfarin ? [Requires doctor or/ researcher's response.] Thank you for providing information and detail with accurate articles about current research results and health problems!

Heart device

I find the report very interesting. Thanks.