A Survey Of 128 Patients With Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator:the Management Of Defibrillators In The End Of Life

Aims The indications of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator(ICD)are expanding,especially in the primary prevention.With the increase of the aging population,ICD implantation increased year by year.But in the case of end-stage patients,defibrillation can cause severe suffering for patients via repeated shocks,raising the question of whether the ICD should be turned off.Therefore,this report aims to study the knowledge and demand of such patients in China through a questionnaire survey.Methods Patients with ICD implantation or battery replacement during March 12,2014 and December 25,20 1 8,in ward 2 of the arrhythmia center of the national cardiovascular center were conducted a telephone survey.We made a questionnaire survey,and analyzed some influencing factors by multivariate stepwise logistic regression.Results 128 patients(response rate is 84.7%)met the inclusion criteria.When asked whether they chose to deactivate the ICD in the end of life,only 21 people(16.4%)select to deactivate the ICD.113(88.3%)had not discussed the deactivation of ICD with others.Only 11(9.2%)believed that the ICD deactivation could be accomplished through non-surgical procedures,15(12.6%)knew that the ICD was deactivated through an external programmer,and only 4(3.4%)knew that the ICD was deactivated with magnets.The majority of patients(81,63.3%)felt they need to discuss with their physicians further about the information associated with the deactivation of ICD.Conclusions Compared with foreign studies,our patients’ knowledge of management of ICD in the end stage of life is obviously insufficient,and the demand of information is significantly larger than that of foreign reports.If adequate education is conveyed to the patients,it is possible to change patients’ end-stage decisions on ICD management and improve patients’ quality of life.