Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE
-
Although death occurs suddenly in coronary heart disease, it is associated with a prior history of cardiac disease in 85% and with prodromal symptoms in 73.8% of the patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest outside the hospital. Sudden death was the first expression of coronary heart disease in 3.6% of the patient population. The fact that out-of-hospital sudden death is usually secondary to myocardial infarction and ischemia is supported by this clinical study and is suggested by other clinical and pathological studies of individuals dying suddenly.
-
The issue of pacemaker reuse is a complicated one. While reuse of other medical devices is feasible, the reuse of implanted pacemakers is dependent upon multiple variables. Among these are battery life, availability of units, and costs of refurbishment. When considered using current cost codes, the savings associated with pacemaker reuse are generally negligible and generally do not encourage widespread adoption of this practice.