Procedures cause little pain but heighten heart performance.

Like baton-waving conductors, these devices instantly sense when the beat goes wrong, and orchestrate a quick recovery and peak performance.

Pacemakers set a steady beat for slow hearts. Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) deliver a corrective jolt of electricity if the rhythm races out of control. Demand for ICD procedures is spiking, especially since Medicare recently approved funding for more widespread use.

“Both implant procedures are surgically similar, and now routine,” says Bruce Wilkoff, M.D., director of cardiac pacing and tachyarrhythmia devices at The Cleveland Clinic. …

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