CHENNAI: The idea of reusing cardiac electronic devices like pacemakers may make you frown, if not cringe, but a used device is as safe as a new one, shows a joint study done by institutions in India and France.
The result of the five-year long study by Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer), Puducherry, in association with STIM Developpement, a French voluntary organisation, and the cardiology department of Georges Pompidou European Hospital, France (Hopital Europeen Georges Pompidou) was published in the January issue of the journal, Health Asia.
Since 2010 when the study was initiated, researchers studied patients who underwent implantation of pacemaker, cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) device or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) – both new and reused. In all, 887 patients, including 127 who had CRT device or ICDs implant, were chosen. Of these, 260 devices (29.3 per cent) were reused.
They then analysed the incidents of infection, device malfunction and device-related death within six months after initial implantation. At the end of six months, there were no malfunctions or deaths, but three device-related infections were reported – all from new devices.
“Surprisingly, there were no infections among patients receiving a reused device. There were also no device malfunctions or device-related deaths in either group,” said the study, ‘Reuse of pacemakers, defibrillators and cardiac resynchronisation devices’.
Speaking to Express, Dr Raja J Selvaraj from Jipmer, the first author, said the study was undertaken to assure that it was indeed safe to reuse these life-saving devices, all of which are out of reach for most patients due to prohibitive price.
These devices come with a minimum life – it is about 10 years for pacemakers – but not all of them are used that long. There are cases where it is removed after a year or so for various reasons, leading to wastage of a fully functional life-saving device that majority of the people, especially those in the developing countries, are not able to afford.
“A simple pacemaker will cost Rs 50,000-60,000, while it is about Rs 2 lakh or so for the advanced ones. Same is the case with CRT and ICD devices that cost anywhere between Rs 2 and Rs 5 lakh or even more,” Dr Selvaraj added.
If the device explanted from a patient is still functional, it should be used on a patient who is in dire need, said the doctor, arguing against discarding it.
Jipmer received most of the reused devices free of cost from France through STIM Develeoppement. “This is the organisation which collects these devices, cleans them and sends to us free of cost. At Jipmer, these devices are given to patients for free. It is just like organ donation,” he added.