RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A patient with heart failure received the first implant of a cardioverter-defibrillator associated with cardiac resynchronizer with Bluetooth technology in Brazil.
The procedure was performed at Santa Isabel Hospital – Rede Santa Catarina -, in Blumenau, on August 6 and was carried out by a team of cardiovascular surgeons coordinated by physician Eduardo Moeller Mota.
The device is called an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (Non-Crt) and electronically adjusts the heartbeats and helps in the treatment of heart failure, besides identifying and treating serious cardiac arrhythmias that can endanger the patient’s life by causing cardiac arrest.
According to doctor Moeller Mota, this surgery is performed frequently, but the main and biggest novelty is the Bluetooth connection.
Until now, the available technology required the patient to have a device at home to synchronize the defibrillator and send the information from the device to a central station, which forwarded it to the doctor.
Now, this new device performs the communication directly through an application installed on a smartphone, generating extreme agility in the transmission of information.
The device, from the American manufacturer Abbott, called Neutrino NxT, is implanted in the thorax, below the collarbone, and three electrodes are positioned inside the heart through the subclavian vein – two on the right side and one on the left side of the heart.
Through these electrodes, the Neutrino NxT regulates the heartbeat and adjusts the best way for the heart to contract to help treat heart failure.
Through Bluetooth communication, the physician can be informed of any arrhythmic events happening to the heart and can act quickly to prevent further damage. The application transmits the status and information from the device in an encrypted form, ensuring extreme security as the data is only accessed by authorized persons.
It is important to clarify that this technology does not replace specialist monitoring.
“All patients with implanted electronic heart devices need follow-up care. The periodic medical review is fundamental to verify and confirm the correct functioning, optimize all the available resources and guarantee excellence in the results, generating a better quality of life”, says the specialist.