Monday, June 21, 2010

Wide and Thin or Narrow and Thick

Get your mind out of the gutter. We're talking about defibrillators here.

There's a great picture comparing the size of implantable defibrillators for the management of ventricular arrhythmias and heart failure (and a nice article on the not-so-new wireless telemetry features) over at the New York Times today.

Here's the question:
If you needed a new defibrillator and assuming all implantable devices had identicle capabilities, which would you rather have: (1) a wide and thin device (a la the "Cognis 100-D" device of Boston Scientific's), or (2) a thicker and slightly narrower device (sported by Medtronic's Consulta CRT-D and St. Jude's EPIC-HF devices)?
Go ahead and place your vote in the comments section.

For fairness, here's a side view of the three devices arranged left-to-right as in the prior picture:

(Click to enlarge)
Left: St. Jude; Middle: Boston Scientific; Right: Medtronic

(Industry reps needn't vote. Thanks.)

-Wes

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wide and thin

Blogger said...

Neither. What's really important to patients is device longevity and shock-free therapy (ATP).

Named Just Bob said...

You can never be too thin, too rich or too good looking. Seeing that I fail in the latter two categories, I'll take a thinner, wider profile.

moomag said...

Not sure where my Medtronic Virtuoso fits in here size wise. Though it is relatively small it still bothers me particularly since I have lost 50 pounds since the implant and don't have much of a layer of fat over it.
To me the most important thing is that it does its job, though I guess thin is better.

Marie said...

I'll ditto Hugo. Also, thin or thick, these devices are noticeable, and whether that matters varies from person to person. Me, I'm mostly interested in one that doesn't malfunction.

Unknown said...

I agree with moomag. I've lost weight a good bit of weight since my Virtuoso was installed in my lower right abdomen. It's very obvious even disturbing looking to some. I don't care, it's save my life more than once.

Chrysalis said...

Thin is better for implanting underneath the skin. Having had a port, I hated how that darn thing sticked out so much.

rlbates said...

Function is most important, but thin is better than thick (agree with CA).

The Happy Hospitalist said...

This is one of those situations where your woman is always right. Just ask your wife, doc.

Anonymous said...

All things being equal, I would opt for thin, since I also don't have enough "extra padding" to put the device in. The problem is all things are not equal, so I opted for the thicker option with a better track record.

Melissa said...

Hard to say. My son is a little guy and they went with a fat one. It pokes out tons but if it were any wider it would creep into his neck.

Anonymous said...

I say thin to win! My on-board St. Jude device sits on top of my rib cage, just above the heart...and works just fine, thank you very much- ZAP! Ouch, there it goes again...just kidding! Johnrio