Explains everything you need to know about living with a pacemaker, ICD, or CRT device. By an experienced cardiologist, a cardiac device specialist, and a patient.

Pacing and ICDs are used increasingly in the management of arrhythmias and a number of different cardiac conditions. Specialists, general cardiologists and general physicians are now closely involved in managing patients with these devices. Implantable Cardiac Pacemakers and Defibrillators: All you wanted to know is written by leading specialists from the UK and USA and is designed for all physicians looking for a clear and comprehensive introduction to the principles and functions of these devices. The focus of this book has been on the indications for these devices and continuing patient management for the generalist and those in training – including complications and troubleshooting that arise peri- and post-implantation. Not only does Implantable Cardiac Pacemakers and Defibrillators provide a sound introduction to the subject, in the later chapters it goes beyond the basics, introducing more advanced techniques such as lead extraction. It can be used both for those in training and for those with direct patient care responsibilities. With its up to date, evidence-based approach and inclusion of the latest AHA guidelines on pacing, this is an ideal guide to a major aspect of modern cardiac management.

This specialist handbook is a practical, comprehensive, and concise training guide on how to implant, follow-up, and troubleshoot pacemakers and ICDs, fully updated with new technologies and the latest international guidelines.

A Library Journal Best Consumer Health Book of 2010 Heart rhythm problems can be a matter of life or death. In this easy-to-read guide, Dr. Todd Cohen provides comprehensive information to help people with heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias) get an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Dr. Cohen tells readers what they need to know about palpitations, rapid heart rhythms (tachycardias), slow heart rhythms (bradycardias), cardiac arrest, and other conditions related to irregular heartbeats. With the goal of informing and empowering heart patients, Dr. Cohen describes the heart's basic function, the various conditions associated with arrhythmia, and recommended courses of treatment. He discusses such procedures as tilt table testing, electrophysiology studies, catheter ablation, and device implantation (including cardiac monitors, pacemakers, defibrillators, and biventricular devices); explains the essentials of CPR and the use of Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs); and presents the latest guidelines from the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the Heart Rhythm Society. A Patient's Guide to Heart Rhythm Problems will help readers understand • how the heart works and what can go wrong • the tests and other diagnostic procedures they may undergo • how their doctor reaches a diagnosis • what their diagnosis means • how their doctor might treat the problem • when medication alone is sufficient treatment • when pacemaker, defibrillator, or biventricular therapy is appropriate • how to get the best possible medical care—in and out of the hospital Endorsed by the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association, this essential resource features tables highlighting key information, as well as patient narratives that provide personal insight into arrhythmia tests, treatments, and technologies.

Consisting of 13 chapters, this book is uniformly written to provide sensible, matter-of-fact methods for understanding and caring for patients with permanent pacemakers, ICDs and CRT systems. Now improved and updated, including a new chapter on programming and optimization of CRT devices, this second edition presents a large amount of information in an easily digestible form. Cardiac Pacing and Defibrillation offers sensible, matter-of-fact methods for understanding and caring for patients, making everyday clinical encounters easier and more productive. Readers will appreciate the knowledge and experience shared by the authors of this book.

One of the most time-consuming tasks in clinical medicine is seeking the opinions of specialist colleagues. There is a pressure not only to make referrals appropriate but also to summarize the case in the language of the specialist. This book explains basic physiologic and pathophysiologic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease in a straightforward manner, gives guidelines as to when referral is appropriate, and, uniquely, explains what the specialist is likely to do. It is ideal for any hospital doctor, generalist, or even senior medical student who may need a cardiology opinion, or for that ma.

Today hundreds of thousands of Americans carry pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) within their bodies. These battery-powered machines—small computers, in fact—deliver electricity to the heart to correct dangerous disorders of the heartbeat. But few doctors, patients, or scholars know the history of these devices or how "heart-rhythm management" evolved into a multi-billion-dollar manufacturing and service industry. Machines in Our Hearts tells the story of these two implantable medical devices. Kirk Jeffrey, a historian of science and technology, traces the development of knowledge about the human heartbeat and follows surgeons, cardiologists, and engineers as they invent and test a variety of electronic devices. Numerous small manufacturing firms jumped into pacemaker production but eventually fell by the wayside, leaving only three American companies in the business today. Jeffrey profiles pioneering heart surgeons, inventors from the realms of engineering and medical research, and business leaders who built heart-rhythm management into an industry with thousands of employees and annual revenues in the hundreds of millions. As Jeffrey shows, the pacemaker (first implanted in 1958) and the ICD (1980) embody a paradox of high-tech health care: these technologies are effective and reliable but add billions to the nation's medical bill because of the huge growth in the number of patients who depend on implanted devices to manage their heartbeats.

Fully revised and updated, the fourth edition of Cardiac Pacingand ICDs continues to be an accessible and practical clinicalreference for residents, fellows, surgeons, nurses, PAs, andtechnicians. The chapters are organized in the sequence of the evaluation ofan actual patient, making it an effective practical guide. Revisedchapters and updated artwork and tables plus a new chapter oncardiac resynchronization make the new edition an invaluableclinical resource. Features: · New chapter on Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy · Updated and better quality figures and tables · Updated content based on ACC/AHA/NASPE guidelines · Updated indications for ICD placement · Updated information on ICD and pacemakertroubleshooting

This "utterly spectacular" book weighs the impact modern medical technology has had on the author's life against the social and environmental costs inevitably incurred by the mining that makes such innovation possible (Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises). What if a lifesaving medical device causes loss of life along its supply chain? That's the question Katherine E. Standefer finds herself asking one night after being suddenly shocked by her implanted cardiac defibrillator. In this gripping, intimate memoir about health, illness, and the invisible reverberating effects of our medical system, Standefer recounts the astonishing true story of the rare diagnosis that upended her rugged life in the mountains of Wyoming and sent her tumbling into a fraught maze of cardiology units, dramatic surgeries, and slow, painful recoveries. As her life increasingly comes to revolve around the internal defibrillator freshly wired into her heart, she becomes consumed with questions about the supply chain that allows such an ostensibly miraculous device to exist. So she sets out to trace its materials back to their roots. From the sterile labs of a medical device manufacturer in southern California to the tantalum and tin mines seized by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a nickel and cobalt mine carved out of endemic Madagascar jungle, Lightning Flowers takes us on a global reckoning with the social and environmental costs of a technology that promises to be lifesaving but is, in fact, much more complicated. Deeply personal and sharply reported, Lightning Flowers takes a hard look at technological mythos, healthcare, and our cultural relationship to medical technology, raising important questions about our obligations to one another, and the cost of saving one life.

Different artificial tools, such as heart-pacing devices, wearable and implantable monitors, engineered heart valves and stents, and many other cardiac devices, are in use in medical practice. Recent developments in the methods of cardiac pacing along with appropriate selection of equipment are the purpose of this book. Implantable heart rate management devices and wearable cardiac monitors are discussed. Indications for using specific types of cardiac pacemakers, cardiac resynchronization therapy devices, and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are of interest and their contraindications are considered. Special attention is paid to using leadless devices. The subcutaneous ICD obviates the need for transvenous leads and leadless pacemakers are entirely implantable into the right ventricle. Finally, applications of user-friendly wearable devices for the detection of atrial arrhythmia are debated.