Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD) - Alegent Health Clinic

An ICD is a device, about the size of a deck of cards, which is implanted under the skin and has wires (leads) that pass into the heart. The main purpose of the ICD is to monitor the heart for the life-threatening rhythms ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) that can lead to cardiac arrest and death. The ICD can terminate the abnormal rhythm and restore normal rhythm by delivering a powerful shock to the heart muscle or through a special type of cardiac pacing.

The ICD also has all the functions of a pacemaker and can send very small electrical impulses to the heart to stimulate contraction of the heart. This function keeps the heart from going to slow in patients where this is a problem.

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http://www.alegent.com/vandegraaff

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Category:

Science & Technology

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• Implantable
• Cardioverter-Defibrillator
• (ICD)
• heart
• alegent
• health
• disease
• omaha
• doctors
• vascular
• specialists