Pacemakers

Pacemakers allow doctors to be more aggressive with meds to treat afib. Since most meds to "treat" a fib , actually are mainly being used to control rate, not necessarily the a fib itself.

Hello all--

I'm an EP nurse who does ICD implants and followup. This topic has been near and dear to my heart this week after we had a bovie-related "near-miss" in our EP lab.

I just wanted to say that you really need to think twice before putting a magnet on any ICD. You can make the magnet response whatever you want it to be on implant in most devices. In some Guidant devices, a magnet will leave detection off until it's turned back on by a programmer. It's a better idea to just have a rep or one of your EP nurses turn detection off until after the procedure. We've been doing this in our facility, and it's been quite successful.

And, yes, there are anti-atrial tachy pacers/ICD's out there and their success has been mixed at best. Medtronic offers one with a little remote control that will even let the "highly motivated" patient cardiovert himself with the help of a little keychain wand which looks like a car alarm keychain. To my knowledge, they haven't been tremendously popular.

Thanks.

catlabrn!!!!!!! I'm a EP nurse too...good to meet ya.

Are you going to NASPE?

I am an EP nurse too, but soon to be off to crna school!! EP is a different ball game, and it is amazing what you learn in the lab! You learn about the heart in a whole different light.

Nice to meet you too jebain, my hubbie is a CRNA

I'm trying to get to NASPE, but my manager is being a pain. It's nice to see other EP types out there, especially lurking on an anesthesia forum. I,too, am considering anesthesia school.

I am going to NASPE, let me know if you are going, maybe we can "do lunch"

If I can go, I'll let you know.

Jebain, can you clean out your email files? I'm trying to send you a private message and it is blocked because your files are full. Thanks,

I started reading this thread with interest but skimmied it thinking that the info may be dated . I and I bet others would love a review as succint and informative as the first page. Perhaps just an update? Thanks. Ed