Categories
ICD/Pacemaker

Pacemkers that never need generator replacement?

From one of my favorite journals, Applied Physics Letters. (Just kidding.) Could the vibration of the heart be harnessed into energy to drive a pacemaker generator? Nifty stuff here. They just need to overcome that thorny issue of bio-compatibility. JMM From Medical News Today.

Categories
ICD/Pacemaker

“It’s just a generator change”

Cardiac devices are battery powered.  Like your TV remote, they require change–every 5-10 years or so. No worries…”it’s just a generator change” is a phrase one hears frequently in the cath lab. They are supposed to be easy cases. But they are not always.  And here is more recent evidence that the simple pacemaker/defibrillator replacement […]

Categories
Doctoring ICD/Pacemaker

What to do when a chronically ill patient reaches the end of battery life of their cardiac defibrillator…

Years ago at the time of the original cardiac defibrillator implant (ICD), he was a vibrant active man who had suffered from an arrhythmia related to scar from a remote heart attack. Things change.  Life has chapters. It is amazing what can happen to a person during the 5-7 year battery life of an ICD. […]