Heart Defibrillators Are Prone to Faults in Their Wiring
The longer you've had hardware in your heart, the more regularly you should check for faulty wiring.
According to new research published in the journal Circulation, 15 percent of patients who had a defibrillator implanted to correct their abnormal heart rhythms needed a surgical fix to remedy a defective lead, the wire that sends a charge to the misbehaving heart muscle. The average time from implantation to wiring failure was 4.7 years, and among people who had lived with an implant for at least 10 years, 20 percent needed a fix. The study was conducted by researchers from Herzzentrum Ludwigschafen, a German cardiovascular research institute.
"Just because a patient's done well for 10 years doesn't mean you should let your guard down," says Kenneth Ellenbogen, spokesman for the American Heart Association and chairman of the division of cardiology at Virginia Commonwealth University Health Systems. The longer you've had your defibrillator, he says, the more frequently you should be checked by your arrhythmia specialist. Frequency depends on the nature of your disease, but as your device ages, between one and three months is typical. The study also compared newer silicone-insulated leads with the older polyurethane-insulated ones and found that the older versions fared better over the first five years.
advertisement
