Doctors should recommend home defibrillators

Patients who are discharged after myocardial infarction should be advised to consider buying a home defibrillator, an Australian expert says. Professor Michael O’Rourke, writing as part of the British Medical Journal's 'Head to Head' feature, said that home defibrillators would be useful for patients who experienced a small or medium MI and have an "intelligent, enthusiastic spouse or carer".  Such patients have a much higher risk of coronary events, and, considering that most such events occur in the home, could benefit from having an external defibrillator. He said that although a study of 7000 patients found home defibrillators did not improve survival rates in MI patients, it was flawed because it included participants who were not enthusiastic about using the technology. The study also did not provide training and follow-up for carers, he added. Professor O’Rourke also said that another argument in favour of external defibrillators is that they are significantly cheaper than internal defibrillators. "Defibrillators can be purchased for around $1500, and people pay this much or more… for a better TV or sound system in their home," he said.  However, in an opposing editorial two US experts argued that there was no evidence that home defibrillators reduced cardiac death....