Implanted automatic defibrillators effectively monitored and terminated malignant ventricular arrhythmias in high-risk patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Does an implanted automatic defibrillator terminate malignant ventricular arrhythmias in patients at high risk of sudden death?
This landmark pilot study describes the first human implantations of an automatic defibrillator to terminate lethal ventricular arrhythmias.
THE development of a clinically applicable, automatic, implantable defibrillator has been described previously.1 This electronic device is designed to monitor cardiac electrical activity, to recognize ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachyarrhythmias with a sinusoidal wave form, and then to deliver corrective defibrillatory discharges. It is intended to protect patients at particularly high risk of sudden death whenever and wherever they are stricken by these lethal arrhythmias.After extensive preclinical testing, 2 a pilot study of this new technique was recently initiated at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. This article decribes the first three patients in whom the automatic defibrillator was implanted to manage . . .
Mirowski et al. (1980) studied this question. Implanted automatic defibrillators effectively monitored and terminated malignant ventricular arrhythmias in high-risk patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital.