Defibrillator lead wires need better surveillance to detect defects, a group of heart doctors has said. The Heart Rhythm Society also called on hospitals to train doctors in the delicate procedure of removing such wires from patients.
A lead is a wire that connects an implantable defibrillator to the heart. If a lead breaks, the defibrillator can emit a massive and painful shock. And in the worse case scenario, the fractured lead can prevent a defibrillator from sending a necessary, lifesaving shock to the heart.
Replacing a lead is not an easy procedure, as the invasive surgery can cause the tissue of the blood vessels and heart to tear.
The Heart Rhythm Society, meeting in Boston this week, said hospitals need to train more doctors to remove faulty defibrillator leads. They said physicians should perform at least 40 extractions under expert supervision before operating on their own. Supervising physicians should have performed at least 75 extractions with a high rate of success, the group states. They also recommended that such training take place only medical centers that perform a large number of lead extractions each year should train physicians to perform the surgery.
The Heart Rhythm Society also called for tracking the success and failure rates of removal procedures in a national database to give physicians a clearer picture of best practices for the difficult procedures, the Associated Press said.