Doctors told to check up on heart device patients

People with implanted heart devices need closer follow-up care, an international panel of heart specialists recommended Wednesday in the first guidelines for monitoring this rapidly growing group of patients.

Nearly 2 million people worldwide have pacemakers, defibrillators or other machines to help their hearts beat faster, slower or more regularly.

For years, attention focused on who should get these gadgets and whether insurance should pay. Now doctors are facing the daunting task of making sure the devices keep working and that patients hear about safety issues such as the big recalls that have shaken the industry in recent years.

The guidelines spell out who should do what to ensure good care. They tackle ethical dilemmas, like when to turn off a device and let a patient die. This is aimed at preventing horror stories like those of dying cancer patients whose defibrillators continue to shock their failing hearts back to life.

LA Times