New Guy Two ?'s

Hi ya'll. I was supposed to get my ICD tomorrow, but got a call surgery canceled which creates one of my questions.

But first, about me-age 65M-semi-retired(work because enjoy it)-emergency triple bypass 5 years ago-current EF/20-multiple SCA family history-currently wearing Zoll Lifevest.
No events, but I do not have to be convinced an ICD is necessary.

Q1. The EP nurse said surgery canceled because Medtronic ICD wi MRI access(which I requested) had not yet been approved by hospital(St. Luke's-Houston) for purchase. whut??
I realize this particular device is new and the hospital only had two weeks notice ,but what has them approving anything? Any clues?

Q2. I read on this forum where somebody said the MRI accesses have disadvantages. Can anyone elaborate or direct me to relevant material. I have read the extensive Medtronic downloads and wonder what I am missing.

TIA and I look forward to interaction with this group for many, many years to come.

2 Comments

mri devices

by Tracey_E - 2015-12-30 03:12:12

Having an mri-complaint device doesn't mean you can go just anywhere and have an mri. It just means there are some facilities able to do it following a certain protocol. Perhaps that hospital isn't one set to do mri's even on compliant devices?

More and more places are now safely doing mri's on regular devices so imo having an mri safe device is less important than when they first came out. If you want to find more on that, look up some of the past posts by Inga, username golden_snitch. She is very up on the research and has posted about it several times. I know a handful of members who have safely had mri's with regular pm/icd's.

Will you be pacing also or is the icd strictly for SCA risk? Some of the mri compliant devices are not as good for active people because they have a lower limit of how high they can pace. If you won't be pacing, this won't affect you.


Hospital

by BillH - 2015-12-30 05:12:01

I think that they try to standardize on using a selected qroup of products for many reasons.

And they are try to decide if they want to add this to their preferred list or not. And if not to make an exception.

Just guessing.

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