Dateline: 06/29/01

Doctors at George Washington University Hospital this morning implanted a small electrical device in the chest of U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney to control episodes of irregular heartbeat.

The device, called an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, is a small electronic device, roughly the size of a small pager, weighing less than 80 grams, that is placed under the skin of the upper chest and has the capacity to continuously monitor and analyze a patient's heart rhythm. 

According to Cheney's cardiologist, Jonathan Samuel Reiner, M.D., the ICD's main function is to interrupt rapid heart rhythms, or "arrhythmia." If the ICD detects an arrhythmia, it can terminate the abnormal rhythm with either a pacemaker function or the delivery of a low-energy electrical shock. The patient may not even be aware the device has function, said doctors.

The operation to implant the ICD in the vice president's chest took just under an hour. 

Patients receiving ICD implants are typically placed under local anesthesia and intravenous sedation, and are discharged from the hospital later the same day. 

At a press conference held immediately after the operation, Alan Wasserman, chairman of the department of medicine at the George Washington University Hospital told reporters, "Everything went exceedingly well, exactly as planned."

Vice President Cheney, now 60, has suffered four mild heart attacks over the last 23 years and undergone a successful quadruple cardiac bypass operation. 

His last heart attack occurred in November 2000 near the end of the presidential campaign. At that time, doctors found his arteries to be 90 percent blocked and implanted a device called a "stent" to force the walls of the arteries to remain open.

Cheney stated on Friday that he had no doubts in his ability to continue his duties after the procedure, but that he would leave office if found any inhibition in his ability to function. "I would be the first to step down. I do not have any interest in continuing in the post unless I am able to perform that adequately and the doctors have assured me that is the case," he said.

Prior to Saturday's procedure, Vice President Cheney told reports he planned to be back at work on Monday, meeting with President Bush and appearing on radio interviews promoting the Bush Administration's national energy plan.

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