Implantable heart defibrillator
First Claim
1. An implantable cardiac defibrillator comprising:
- pulse generator means for delivering pulses in vivo to a heart; and
control means for operating said pulse generator for emitting, within one refractory period of said heart, a plurality of low-energy pulses respectively having an electrical field associated therewith and an energy insufficient to defibrillate said heart and said pulses in combination having a total energy which is less than a defibrillation energy which is capable of defibrillating the entirety of said heart, and said energy of each low-energy pulse being in a range of 2 to 5 times less than said defibrillation energy for giving each low-energy pulse sufficient energy for depolarizing heart tissue cells oriented in a favorable direction in relation to the electrical field associated with the low-energy pulse.
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Abstract
An implantable heart defibrillator includes a pulse generator controlled by a control unit for emitting defibrillation pulses. The pulse generator is controllable to emit a number of low-energy defibrillation pulses, having a lower pulse amplitude and a shorter pulse duration than a conventional defibrillation pulse, with the total energy in the number of low-energy defibrillation pulses being less than the energy in a conventional defibrillation pulse. Each pulse in the number of low-energy defibrillation pulses, however, contains enough energy to depolarize heart cells oriented favorably in relation to the direction of the electrical field of the low-energy defibrillation pulse.
60 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An implantable cardiac defibrillator comprising:
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pulse generator means for delivering pulses in vivo to a heart; and control means for operating said pulse generator for emitting, within one refractory period of said heart, a plurality of low-energy pulses respectively having an electrical field associated therewith and an energy insufficient to defibrillate said heart and said pulses in combination having a total energy which is less than a defibrillation energy which is capable of defibrillating the entirety of said heart, and said energy of each low-energy pulse being in a range of 2 to 5 times less than said defibrillation energy for giving each low-energy pulse sufficient energy for depolarizing heart tissue cells oriented in a favorable direction in relation to the electrical field associated with the low-energy pulse. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for defibrillating a heart comprising the steps of:
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generating a plurality of low-energy pulses within one refractory period of said heart, each low-energy pulse having an electrical field associated therewith and an energy which is insufficient to defibrillate said heart, and said low-energy pulses in combination having a total energy which is less than a defibrillation energy which is capable of defibrillating the entirety of said heart, and each low-energy pulse having an energy which is in a range of 2 to 5 times less than said defibrillation energy for giving said low-energy pulses sufficient energy for depolarizing heart tissue cells which are favorably oriented relative to the direction of the electrical field associated with the low-energy pulse; and delivering said low-energy pulses in vivo to a heart to terminate fibrillation of said heart. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification