An arrhythmia is any disorder of your heart rate or rhythm. It means that your heart beats too quickly, too slowly or with an irregular pattern. Most arrhythmias result from problems in the electrical system of the heart. If your arrhythmia is serious, you may need one of two devices implanted under your skin: a cardiac pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).
A pacemaker monitors the electrical impulses in the heart. When needed, it delivers electrical pulses to make the heart beat in a more normal rhythm. A pacemaker may be helpful when the heart beats too slowly or has other abnormal rhythms.
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is a small device that's placed in your chest or abdomen. This device uses electrical pulses or shocks to help control life-threatening, irregular heartbeats, especially those that could lead the heart to suddenly stop beating (sudden cardiac arrest). If the heart stops beating, blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs. This usually causes death if it's not treated in minutes
The most common problem with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) is that they give pulses when they aren't needed. Pulses delivered too often or at the wrong time can damage the heart or trigger an irregular heartbeat. They also can be painful and emotionally upsetting. If this occurs, your doctor can reprogram the ICD or prescribe medicines so the pulses occur less often.
Only one in three patients ever receive a shock from this device. This probably means, not that we are implanting these devices in healthy people, but that we aren't identifying enough people who actually need a defibrillator (or perhaps, patients themselves are refusing).
The bottom line is that internal defibrillators save approximately 20% of the people who would have otherwised died. This finding definitely tells us that this new technology is here to stay, and probably will be used more in the future.
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