We all know that a lot of people nowadays have heart problems and not to wonder, we live incredibly active lives and we do a lot of things that damage our circulatory system, almost on a daily basis. As such, it’s not to wonder that soon enough, our heart stops working as well as it should, and it can even sometimes fail.
But thanks to modern technology, we have managed to come up with solutions for a lot of the problems our hearts can have, including abnormal heart rhythms, also known as arrhythmias. These arrhythmias can mean that thee heart is beating either too slow, too fast or in any type of irregular pattern. Needless to say, this can make your heart stop, and if it does, you are not going to breathe for much longer.
Introducing the ICD
But with modern technology a person can now get a pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implanted inside of the chest area in order to help regulate the heart rhythm. Both of these devices are implanted, but they do have some differences.
Introducing the Pacemaker
A pacemaker is, well, going to pace the heart in order to allow to control these abnormal rhythms, so that the patient can actually have a normal, healthy heart rate. It uses electrical impulses to either slow down, speed up, or coordinate the heart in order to make it beat regularly.
The Role of an ICD and Pacemaker
An ICD does everything a pacemaker does, and a little bit more. If the patient has a life-threatening arrhythmia, he is not going to be implanted a pacemaker, but he is going to be implanted an ICD, simply because the ICD also has the power to delivery shocks to the heart. This means that if the ICD feels that heart stopped, it can shock it internally to make it start beating again.
There is no guarantee that the patient is going to survive, but it is certainly going to improve the chances of that happening. As such, an ICD can act as both a pacemaker and a defibrillator, while also recording the patient’s electrical patterns of the heart, in order to give doctor a little more information for future treatments.
Since these devices need to be implanted into the chest area, it is necessary to go through minor surgery in order to get a pacemaker or an ICD. After you go through minor surgery, you are going to have to stay at the hospital for a couple of days so that doctors can make sure the device is working properly, and that your body did not have a poor reaction to the presence of the device in it.
It is expected that within a few days of getting an ICD or a pacemaker you are going to be able to get back to your regular activities.