Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to portable cardiac defibrillators with subcutaneous electrodes and associated systems and methods. In one embodiment, a portable external cardiac defibrillator system for treating a human patient can include a first electrode, a second electrode, and an electrical pulse generator external to the human patient and operably coupled to the first and second electrodes. The first and second electrodes can be configured to be external to the human patient and implanted subcutaneously in the human patient during a cardiac emergency. The electrical pulse generator can be configured to deliver an electrical shock to the human patient via the first and second electrodes while the first and second electrodes are subcutaneously implanted to provide internal defibrillation to the human patient.

Abstract: Block or plug implants provide weight-bearing support for adjacent vertebrae in a vertebral column while allowing sufficient area between and beside the plugs for packing of autologous bone graft to allow bony healing and fusion. The plugs have a laterally directed slot to allow ingrowth of blood supply from the side and to allow locking the permanent device in place with living bone. The plugs have a patterned surface to grip the vertebrae. Plugs used for fusion in the L4-5 and L5-S1 levels are wedged-shaped to reproduce the normal shape of these discs, which are higher anteriorly than posteriorly. The height of the plugs is greater than the width. The implants are made of a biocompatible carbon fiber reinforced polymer or alternately made of traditional orthopaedic implant materials such as chrome cobalt, stainless steel or titanium.

Abstract: Surgical prosthetic modular implants used singularly or stacked together are provided to support and fuse together adjacent vertebrae or to totally or partially replace one or more vertebrae in a vertebral column. The implants are rigid annular plugs, dimensionally similar to normal vertebral bodies, have simplified oval or hemi-oval shapes with ridged faces to engage adjacent vertebral bodies to resist displacement and allow bone ingrowth and fusion and to interdigitate with the ridges of an adjacent plug for modular stacking to allow variability of ultimate implant height. The implants can be provided in sets of different thicknesses and are internally grooved to receive an upstanding connecting bar to bind together the individual stacked implants into a stable unit.

Abstract: Prosthesis plug implants forming transverse struts between adjacent vertebrae have roughened surfaces receiving bone ingrowth to fuse the plugs on prepared surface sites on opposed faces of adjacent vertebrae and have end faces with tool receiving recesses securing the plug on a tool for insertion on the prepared sites of the vertebrae and for removing the tool from the plug without disturbing its position on the sites. These sites are prepared by feeding a drill through a guide fixed to posterior or anterior sides of adjacent vertebrae to form transverse side-by-side channels including cortex bone in the opposed faces of the adjacent vertebrae and terminating the drilling in advance of the opposite sides of the vertebrae. A plurality of the plug implants are each threaded on the end of the tool surrounded by a sleeve and are inserted endwise in exact position on the prepared side-by-side sites.

Abstract: Gauge blocks or plugs and permanent implant plugs are provided for surgical procedures to support and fuse together adjacent vertebrae in a vertebral column. The plugs are rectangular with tapered front ends and tool receiving rear ends. The gauge blocks are smooth faced for removal but the implant plugs have roughened surfaces to grip the vertebrae and provide channels for bone ingrowth. The plugs have recesses in the form of through slots to be packed with bone graft material. In the surgical procedure, undamaged annulus fibrosus disc tissue connecting the adjacent vertebrae is preserved and a pair of side-by-side roughened implant plugs are forced into side-by-side transverse channels in the adjoining vertebrae to stretch the remaining annulus disc tissue and form struts supporting the vertebrae. The plugs are bottomed in the channels on cortex bone and bone ingrowth is facilitated to fuse the plugs to the vertebrae.

Abstract: A surgical prosthetic implant for the vertebral column in the form of a rigid, preferably inert metal, plug having a porous metal surface allowing ingrowth of bone cells for biologic fixation is provided to achieve vertebral interbody fusion for treating or preventing back pain in patients with ruptured or degenerated vertebral discs. The plug forms a strut spanning and maintaining the disc space between adjoining vertebrae and has opposite ends bottomed in channels that are cut into the opposing faces of the vertebrae or opposed faces bottomed on the end faces of adjoining vertebrae. Bone ingrowth into the porous surface of the plug achieves long term biological fixation with living bone. Local bone graft harvested from the channel cuts into the vertebrae to receive the plug supplements the fusion. The implant minimizes or eliminates the need for bone graft material obtained from a second surgical site or from a bone bank and simplifies the method of achieving the interbody fusion.

Abstract: A tissue gas diffusion catheter device which includes an impervious catheter, the lumen of which is filled with an impervious element extending beyond the distal end of the catheter. The catheter is enclosed for its full length as well as the element extending through the lumen of the catheter and there beyond to a plug of the same diameter as the catheter by means of a membrane permeable to gases but not to liquids that might be found in body tissue. That end portion between the distal termination of the catheter and the plug forms a liquid chamber which may be filled with water or other suitable fluid in a manner to allow the catheter fluid to become equilibrated or "tonometered" with the gas contained in the surrounding body tissue, such tonometer fluid being capable of being analyzed for gas content using the usual blood gas analyzing instruments available in hospital laboratories. Such analysis may be made in an immediately accessible laboratory or a laboratory remotely located.