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How implantable cardioverter-defibrillators work and simple programming

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2017

Randall M. Bryant
Randall M. Bryant*
Affiliation:
Interventional Electrophysiology and Pacing, University of Florida – Jacksonville/Gainesville, Jacksonville, Florida, United States of America
*
Correspondence to: R. Bryant, MD, Interventional Electrophysiology and Pacing, Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Cardiology), University of Florida – Jacksonville/Gainesville, 841 Prudential Dr; Suite #100; Jacksonville, FL 32207, United States of America. Tel: +904 493 1610; Fax: +904 633 4111; E-mail: Randy.bryant@jax.ufl.edu
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Abstract

Following the sudden death of a friend in 1966, Dr Michel Mirowski began pioneering work on the first implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. By 1969 he had developed an experimental model and performed the first transvenous defibrillation. In 1970 he reported on the use of a “standby automatic defibrillator” that was tested successfully in dogs. He postulated that such a device “when adapted for clinical use, might be implanted temporarily or permanently in selected patients particularly prone to develop ventricular fibrillation and thus provide them with some degree of protection from sudden coronary death”. In 1980 he reported on the first human implants of an “electronic device designed to monitor cardiac electrical activity, to recognise ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachyarrhythmias … and then to deliver corrective defibrillatory discharges”. Through innovations in circuitry, battery, and capacitor technologies, the current implantable cardioverter-defibrillator is 10 times smaller and exponentially more sophisticated than that first iteration. This article will review the inner workings of the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator and outline several features that make it the wonder in technology that it has become.

Keywords

Implantable cardiovertor-defibrillatorventricular fibrillationventricular tachycardiadefibrillation
Type
Original Articles
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 27 , Supplement S1: Sudden Cardiac Arrest in the Young: A Contemporary Perspective , January 2017 , pp. S121 - S125
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2017 

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