Implantable Devices
Specialists from Capital Health’s Cardiac Electrophysiology Program are trained to perform procedures that place implantable devices to support the electrical system of the heart and prevent life-threatening conditions from occurring. This includes:
- A pacemaker is a small device typically implanted in the chest with thin wires that connect to the heart via the blood vessels to the heart. The devices are battery powered and monitor and deliver electrical impulses to stabilize your heart’s electrical system. Capital Health Cardiac Electrophysiologists are also among the earliest groups of physicians utilizing leadless pacing options, which eliminate the need for pacemaker leads and allow a miniaturized device to be placed directly into the heart and perform similarly to traditional pacemakers.
- Implantable cardioverter defibrillators are for patients with high risk for cardiac arrest, which is a sudden electrical disruption of the ventricles (the bottom pumping chambers of the heart) that results in sudden cardiac death. Capital Health Cardiac Electrophysiologists use both traditional and subcutaneous versions of these devices for their patients.
- Cardiac contractility modulation is used to treat patients with moderate to severe heart failure. A device similar to a pacemaker is implanted under the skin with electrical leads that are guided through veins to be placed in the heart. The device delivers electrical signals that change the strength of the cardiac muscle contraction (without changing the rhythm).
- The Watchman device is for people with atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, which can lead to blood pooling and forming a clot in a part of the heart called the left atrial appendage (LAA). In a minimally invasive procedure, the Watchman device is guided through a narrow tube that is inserted into a vein through a small incision in the patient’s leg. It is then implanted into the LAA to permanently close it to prevent the risk of dislodging clots. During recovery, the patient’s own heart tissue grows over the Watchman device to prevent the clots from developing in the heart.
- For patients whose symptoms are very infrequent, a loop recorder may be placed under the skin in the chest area to record the heart's electrical activity over an extended period of time. This implantable event recorder is used to detect irregular heart rhythms that may not be picked up by same-day diagnostic tools. These small devices can be implanted in the outpatient setting without the need for sedation.
Our program offers a full range of device management services including remote and office-based follow up. We are highly experienced in the full range of device implants, generator changes, lead extraction, complex lead implants, fibroplasty and leadless device implants.
Catheter Ablation
When a cardiac arrhythmia is diagnosed, there are multiple treatment options, with medications typically being the first line therapy. When patients have symptoms that persist even after medical treatment is instituted, catheter ablation offers an alternative, and in some cases, a first line treatment for cardiac arrhythmias. This procedure involves the use of thin catheters passed into the bloodstream that allow the physicians to localize the cardiac arrhythmias and potentially eliminate the sites causing the trouble. With tools such as intracardiac electrical recording, intracardiac echocardiography and 3-dimensional mapping, the specific location of the arrhythmia is usually revealed and the arrhythmia can usually be treated with radiofrequency ablation, and cryoablation.