“Those Plates That Save Me”: Experiences of Italian Patients With Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate and understand the experiences and feelings lived by people with an ICD. Qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of 16 patients, during the annual follow-up. A hermeneutical analysis of the interviews was carried out to identify the themes. Four main themes were classified: “My heart falls asleep,” highlighting a reduced awareness of the pathology and ICD installation; “But what is this thing. . .?” underlining the lack of information and fears related to the device and its functioning; “I cannot hug the microwave” which describes the changes brought about by the surgery; “And with this one I am alright for the rest of my life”, involving hopes and life expectations. This study highlighted the patients’ need for major support from health professionals while processing their new life conditions.

The Life Experience of Patients after the Implantation of Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

“…Among them, 207 (68.77%) were male, 94 (31.23%) were female, 194 (64.45%) were married, 47 (15.61%) were single and others, the marital status of 60 (19.94%) people is unclear, 248 (82.39%) had ICD, 36 (11.96%) had PM, 17(5.65%) had cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator (CRT-D). Of the 18 articles included, 7 were phenomenological studies [ 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 18 , 23 , 27 ], 5 were descriptive qualitative studies [ 11 , 16 , 24 , 26 , 28 ], 4 were grounded theory studies [ 15 , 17 , 19 , 29 ], 1 was interpretive interactionism study [ 25 ], and 1 was deductive exploratory study [ 30 ].…”

“…1 and Table 2 (Ref. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]), a total of 2117 articles were retrieved from the databases, and 18 were finally included after deduplication and screening [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Publication dates ranged from 2000 to 2022.…”

“…Patients with a CIED can experience physical discomforts such as pain, infection, sleep disturbance, and memory loss [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], as well as negative emotions such as fear of electric shock, self-doubt, fear of death, and worry about the future [ 10 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. CIEDs also restrict patients’ activities, including sex, driving, and socializing [ 12 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], and patients may face problems such as body dysmorphia and involuntary job transfers, all of which seriously reduce their quality of life [ 17 , 18 ]. Notably, the occurrence of emotional disorders is an important risk factor for CVD and the recurrence of cardiac events [ 20 ].…”

Hyperoside ameliorates TNF‑α‑induced inflammation, ECM degradation and ER stress‑mediated apoptosis via the SIRT1/NF‑κB and Nrf2/ARE signaling pathwaysin vitro

“…Hyperoside is an active flavonoid glycoside present in numerous medicinal plants such as Epimedium, Hypericum perforatum and Hypericum (10). Previous studies have shown that hyperoside has a wide range of pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammation (11), anti-oxidation (12) and anti-apoptosis (13).…”

“…For example, hyperoside plays an anti-inflammatory role in sepsis-related cardiac insufficiency (14), acute lung injury (15) and acute liver injury (16). in addition, hyperoside was able to attenuate the il-1β-induced ecM destruction of chondrocytes (10). However, the role of hyperoside in idd has not been investigated thus far.…”