Hospitals Dispute Medtronic Data on Wires
By Thomas M. Burton, The Wall Street Journal
Some leading hospitals are reporting failure rates for Medtronic Inc.'s fracture-prone defibrillator wires-including among young people-that are significantly higher than what the company has publicly disclosed.
Medtronic, a medical-device maker, pulled the Sprint Fidelis defibrillator wires off the market in 2007 and substituted another type of wire with a lower failure rate. But an estimated 150,000 Sprint Fidelis wires, which are known as leads, remain implanted in U.S. patients. The company, and most doctors, generally advise patients not to have the leads surgically removed if they haven't fractured, because of the risk of complications.
Medtronic says its own research shows ...
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