New generation pacemaker implanted at Woy Woy

A cardiac patient at Brisbane Waters Private Hospital has become the first Australian recipient of a new cardiac implant device to manage heart muscle disease.

Cardiologist Dr Maged William conducted the procedure on Mr Ron Stewart at the hospital's cardiac angiography suite on February 23.

"The device comes with a range of features facilitating interrogation, programmability and remote monitoring," Dr William said.

"CRB-D devices (Cardiac Resynchronisation Biventricular pacemaker with Defibrillation capability) are becoming part of the mainstream management of patients with heart failure due to cardiomypathy (heart muscle disease) who fulfil certain criteria.

"The introduction of such therapeutic option by the beginning of this century has benefited a large number of patients worldwide by improving their symptoms and reducing the probability of sudden cardiac death.

"Some of these patients have achieved a great deal of improvement of cardiac function.

"Newer generations of devices are increasingly reliable and come with a wider range of program options and features that would allow for monitoring of lung fluid accumulation and other aspects of cardiac failure such as patient's activity and the occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias.

"They also come enabled to wirelessly communicate with programmers, home monitoring devices and telecommunication devices which would allow for remote monitoring of these devices.

"Ron's device implantation was uncomplicated and left him looking forward to the benefits of this new technology."

Press release, 11 Mar 2009 Ella Li, Brisbane Waters Private Hospital