Clinical Follow-up Of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator

Objective:Sudden cardiac death(SCD) is still a difficult problem in the medical profession.More than 80%incidence of SCD is caused by ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation(VT/VF).Implantable cardioverter defibrillator(ICD) can recognize malignant ventricular arrhythmias in a short time and recover those to sinus rhythm,which has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.ICD is becoming the first choice of therapy in patients with the threats of sudden cardiac death.Methods:Thirty-six patients who received ICD implantation from December 2004 through November 2008 in our hospital were observed in this study.ICD was programmed based on the clinical arrhythmia and cardiac function of patients before discharge.Patients were followed-up by standard schedule after implantation and all data retrieved from the device were collected and saved in the disk for further analysis.Results:Thirty-six patients who received ICD implantation were followed-up from three months to fifty-one months.Neither has had missed delivering shocks,nor died during the period of follow-up.Twenty-two patients received shocks on ICD therapy.The cumulative data stored in ICD showed that sustained ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation(VT/VF) were detected and terminated by the devices.Forteen patints have not suffered from the threats of persisting ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation and have not received shocks on ICD therapy.Four patients received unnecessary shock therapy caused by inappropriate detections.A electrode was replaced because of malfunction.Two patients suffered electrical storm..All of them didn't have syncopic events after ICD implantation。Conclusion:ICD has high efficacy on preventing sudden cardiac death.It is important for patients with the ICD therapy to be followed-up carefully and the parameters should be optimized individually according to patients' condition.