The S-ICD eliminates the potential for vascular injury, preserves venous access, and avoids potential complications associated with endovascular lead implantation or extraction.
Youngstown, Ohio (PRWEB) May 13, 2014
Humility of Mary Health Partners is among the first healthcare providers in the country to implant a revolutionary new cardiac defibrillator under the skin of patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest.
The new device, called an S-ICD, was developed by Cameron Health/Boston Scientific and is the world’s first commercially available subcutaneous implantable defibrillator.
Allan L. Katz, D.O., a cardiac electrophysiologist with Humility of Mary Health Partners Physician Associates, implanted the first S-ICD in a patient at St. Elizabeth on Feb. 17. Since then, Dr. Katz and his partner, Dr. Lee Gemma, have repeated the procedure several times, implanting the S-ICD in more than six other patients. All of these procedures were completed at St. Elizabeth Health Center.
“The benefit of the S-ICD over the traditional transvenous implantable cardioverter defibrillators,” Dr. Katz explains, “is that there are no leads placed inside the heart. With traditional transvenous defibrillators, leads placed inside the heart pose a greater risk of systemic infection. The S-ICD also eliminates the potential for vascular injury, preserves venous access, and avoids potential complications associated with endovascular lead implantation or extraction.”
Dr. Katz says “the S-ICD is effective for a majority of primary and secondary prevention ICD candidates – patients at a higher risk for infection, patients with venous access issues, and patients with hereditary cardiomyopathies.”
Cardiomyopathies are chronic disorders of the heart.
From a cosmetic perspective, Dr. Katz says patients like the S-ICD because it is implanted in the left axilla – on the side of the body under the arm – as opposed to the upper part of the chest. This implantation site tends to make the ICD less visible.
Sudden cardiac arrest is an abrupt loss of heart function often caused by rapid or chaotic activity of the heart known as ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Some 850,000 Americans are at risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
About Humility of Mary Health Partners:
Humility of Mary Health Partners is an integrated health system located in the Youngstown/Warren area. It is a region of Catholic Health Partners (CHP) in Cincinnati, the largest health system in Ohio and one of the largest Catholic health systems in the United States. HMHP provides a full spectrum of health care services, including inpatient, outpatient, emergency, urgent care, home care and long-term care. Members are St. Elizabeth Health Center, St. Joseph Health Center, St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center, HM Home Health Services, The Assumption Village, Humility House, Hospice of the Valley and Laurel Lake. Learn more about HMHP online at http://www.HMpartners.org.
About Boston Scientific:
Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices that are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties. For more information, please visit: http://www.bostonscientific.com. ###