Mar 31, 1999
Guidant Clarifies Performance Issue with Limited Subset of Pacemakers

Indianapolis, IN - Guidant Corporation (NYSE and PCX: GDT), today announced it is conducting an action in the field to notify physicians of the potential for early battery depletion in a limited number of its DISCOVERY(tm), MERIDIAN(tm), and PULSAR(tm) pacemaker devices. No deaths or serious injuries have been observed due to this issue. This problem does not affect current pacemaker production, and the company is continuing to ship and distribute DISCOVERY, MERIDIAN, and PULSAR pacemakers on a worldwide basis. No other devices are affected by this action.

This action involves communication to physician customers with instructions to monitor patients who have been implanted with the affected devices on a monthly basis for up to six months to determine any signs of early battery depletion in their pacemakers, after which normal pacemaker follow-up should resume. The company has also advised the FDA of this situation.

Guidant believes this problem affects a very small subset of implanted pacemaker devices. The observed failure rate due to this issue is well less than 1 percent of the identified subset of implanted devices. As a result of this action, it is possible that a very limited number of explants may occur. However, the company expects its expenses involved to be minimal and not impactful to current or future financial performance of the corporation.

A global leader in the medical device industry, Guidant provides innovative, minimally invasive and cost-effective products and services for the treatment of cardiovascular and vascular disease. For more information about Guidant''s products and services, visit the company''s Web site at http://www.guidant.com.