- Thousands eligible for the life-saving devices as an ‘insurance policy’.
- Effects patients at high risk of rapid heartbeat or a heart attack
1
View
comments
Raising hope: Thousands of heart patients will now be allowed to have internal defibrillators fitted
More patients with potentially fatal heart conditions can now have internal defibrillators due to new guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Nearly 6,000 patients with heart failure who are at high risk of an episode of rapid heartbeat, known as ventricular tachycardia, or a heart attack will become eligible for the life-saving devices as an ‘insurance policy’.
The change could cut deaths from heart failure by up to 40 per cent, according to the Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI).
Until now, these patients were given only preventative treatment such as beta-blockers, which decrease heart activity but do nothing to help should an episode of abnormal activity occur.
Before the NICE criterion was changed, the implantable devices were available only to those who had actually had ventricular tachycardia – a major cause of cardiac death – and a minority of patients who’d had a heart attack.
‘There have been many clinical trials over the past five or six years that have demonstrated this will save lives,’ says Dr Simon Williams, a consultant cardiologist at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Hospital and treasurer of the British Society for Heart Failure.
‘It’s proven to be cost-effective and we’re going to see a massive increase in the numbers of these devices fitted. Cardiologists have been waiting for these guidelines for years.’
The devices are miniature versions of external defibrillators, placed under the skin and connected with wires to the heart.
They are able to recognise if the heart is beating too fast and deliver an electric shock, which returns its rhythm to normal.
‘The new guidelines allow us to put internal defibrillators in more of those patients,’ says Dr Williams. ‘They can now have one fitted as an insurance policy.’
The broadening of the guidelines will also make more heart-failure patients eligible for implantable bi-ventricular defibrillator pacemakers – a combination of a pacemaker and defibrillator.
One patient to have benefited from the implantable defibrillator is 19-year-old Ainsley Mantack, who collapsed on a football pitch last month and was diagnosed with Arrhythmic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a disorder of the heart muscle that can cause life-threatening heart rhythm problems.
Lowering risks: An estimated 6,000 people at high risk of an episode of rapid heartbeat or a heart attack will become eligible for the life-saving devices as an ‘insurance policy’
Paramedics who carried out an ECG found he had ventricular tachycardia and his heart was beating at a rate of 200 beats a minute.
The sports coach from Baguely, Manchester, a former semi-pro football player, was taken to AE where doctors used a manual defibrillator to jumpstart his heart and restore normal rhythm.
A week later, he was fitted with an internal defibrillator in an hour-long operation under local anaesthetic.
‘I was conscious after collapsing but I couldn’t move and my vision and hearing were starting to go,’ he says.
‘My heart felt as though it was trying to punch its way out of my chest. I thought I was going to die.
‘Apparently I’ve had this condition all my life but I didn’t know about it.
‘I’ve recovered from the operation really well and I feel fine now – I feel like some sort of iron man. I think it’s great that more people are going to benefit.’
Dr Williams, who fitted Ainsley’s device, says ARVC is a potentially fatal condition. He believes Ainsley’s prognosis is good, adding: ‘Although the average age of patients with heart problems is in their 60s, Ainsley is a really good illustration of the fact that anyone can have these conditions.’
or comment on this article
-
Cop filmed repeatedly punching woman in the face
-
Grandma gets a shock as shark tries to attack her through…
-
Disgusting video of teens beating up ice cream seller
-
Prince Andrew not impressed as Will.i.am’s mobile goes off
-
Horrific moment ‘domestic’ big cat leaps on man in guest…
-
US cousin of dead teen reportedly beaten by Israeli police
-
Conjoined sisters finally find love… with the SAME man
-
Witness and friends defend father charged with killing son
-
Bob Geldof says the loss of Peaches is ‘still very raw’
-
Dutch killer Van der Sloot marries girlfriend from prison
-
Stolen Tesla torn in half and in flames after horror crash
-
Does CCTV footage show abduction of Palestinian youth?
-
Three years after being cleared of murder Casey Anthony is a…
-
WORLD EXCLUSIVE PICTURES: Why did Foxy give her boyfriend…
-
Revealed: Toddler who baked to death in father’s hot car…
-
‘She dropped her Godly protection for a moment’: Friend…
-
After a truly horrifying story of debauchery in a Magaluf…
-
Trooper is filmed ‘brutally beating woman in the head on the…
-
Tour de France dream hangs in the balance for Mark Cavendish…
-
Stripper squatter refuses to leave private house after she…
-
British girl filmed performing a sex act on 24 men in two…
-
Revealed: Father of toddler who baked to death in a hot car…
-
Romanian woman claims ghost of her dead grandmother took a…
-
Wedding bells for Van Der Sloot: Natalee Holloway murder…
Comments (1)
what you think
-
Newest -
Oldest -
Best rated -
Worst rated
The comments below have not been moderated.
daveadams,
Glasgow,
3 hours ago
my dad got one of these fitted last year, he’s doing just great.
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.
Find out now