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By PEGGE PECK
MedPage Today
Abc News

A tiny device–albeit very expensive device– that can send a life- saving shock to the heart may have been implanted unnecessarily into “hundreds of thousands of women,” according to a study published Monday.

Some believe the implantable cardioverter-defibrillators or ICDs that are implanted after a heart attack may not do anything to save womens lives at all.

(Getty Images)

The devices, called implantable cardioverter defibrillators or ICDs, are used to prevent sudden cardiac death in patients with advanced heart failure, meaning that patients who hearts have been damaged by heart attacks or heart disease so that they can no longer efficient pump blood through the body.

Each ICD costs about $30,000 per device and Medicare currently pays for use of the devices in both men and women.

A number of studies have provided evidence that implanting these devices can save live, but the evidence that the devices work was based on trials in which most of the patients were men, and that’s what has led some researchers to take a second look. Read more…