New implanted defibrillator may be simpler, safer (USA)

"A new, wireless defibrillator that is easier to implant and maintain could make life better for people who rely on them to prevent sudden cardiac death, researchers report. A defibrillator delivers an electric shock to restart a heart that has stopped beating. About 100,000 of them are implanted in Americans each year. Current models require careful surgery to run wires from the device through a vein into the heart - a procedure that can damage the heart, a lung or a blood vessel, even when done by the most skilled practitioner. The new device, developed by Cameron Health, a small California company, does away with those wires and has worked as well as the more complicated existing implanted defibrillators in several studies, according to a report released at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Denver"