Remaining longevity and evidence of failure of cardiac implantable electrophysiology devices recovered from funeral homes

Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology : PACE
David LaslettJames N Kirkpatrick

Abstract

Given the prohibitive cost of pacemakers and defibrillators for medically underserved patients in low-income countries, these devices are sometimes recovered from funeral homes for charitable reimplantation. Many devices are implanted near the end of the patients' lives, meaning that recovered devices from funeral homes have the potential for significant remaining longevity. After sending letters asking funeral directors in the Philadelphia area to donate explanted pacemakers and defibrillators, 78 devices were recovered. Sixty-seven of these devices were successfully interrogated, and 64 devices reported estimates of remaining battery life in years. Twenty-one defibrillators were also interrogated for evidence of failure. Twenty-two percent of the 64 devices had greater than 4 years of longevity. Fourteen percent of the devices had between 1 and 4 years of longevity, and the remaining 64% had less than 1 year of remaining battery life. We found no evidence from 21 recovered defibrillators that the patient's cause of death was because of defibrillator failure. In almost half (10/21) of the defibrillators, however, the arrhythmia logs were nondecipherable given the entire log was replaced by episodes of signal noise likely occur...Continue Reading

References

Feb 23, 2007·Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology·James N KirkpatrickBradley P Knight
May 1, 2010·Heart Rhythm : the Official Journal of the Heart Rhythm Society·James N KirkpatrickArthur L Caplan
Feb 15, 2011·Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology : PACE·Sachin LoganiJames N Kirkpatrick
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May 19, 2017·World Journal of Cardiology·Mason W RungeThomas C Crawford

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Citations

Dec 5, 2021·Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology : PACE·Iñigo Lorenzo Ruiz

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