Hospital first in N.E. to use novel defibrillator

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island Hospital became the first hospital in New England, and among the first in the country, to treat a patient with an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) that uses the novel approach of a single lead to sense changes in the heart’s upper chamber, the atrium.
When that happens, the ICD effectively shocks the heart back to a normal rhythm in the ventricle, the heart’s bottom chamber. This new single-lead ICD, which does the job of two leads, can be implanted in less time, and reduces the patient’s exposure to radiation, according to hospital officials.
This new ICD lead received approval from the Food and Drug Administration on February 26; Dr. Antony Chu, director of complex ablation at Rhode Island Hospital, treated the first patient with this new technology on March 1.
To date, six patients have been implanted with this new device at Rhode Island Hospital.
“This type of new technology, which was noted as an unmet need in one of my research papers 10 years ago, is changing the way we treat patients by offering many of the benefits of two leads, but with less procedural risk and with a lower cost,” said Dr. Michael Kim, director of the arrhythmia service at Rhode Island Hospital. “The new single lead allows the detection of top chamber rhythms such as atrial fibrillation and thus can help to improve the overall management of the cardiac patient.”
“Traditional ICDs are designed to only sense and correct changes in ventricular rhythm,” Chu continued. “But this new ICD can sense changes in the atrial rhythm as well. This is a significant advancement, and we are confident that it will be a great benefit to many of our cardiac patients.”

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