Arrhythmias & electrophysiology
Failure to treat ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation by implantable cardioverter-defibrillators
Authors' conclusion
In the largest reported series of failure-to-treat VT/VF by normally functioning ICDs, the most common cause was misclassification of VT as SVT/AF; the most common cause of death was undersensing of VF.
Study context
- Population
- Normally functioning implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) with intact lead systems that failed to treat VT/VF, US FDA MAUDE database reports 2019–2023
- Participants
- 854 reports
- Outcome
- Causes of ICD failure-to-treat VT/VF
Methodological detailsmanufacturer-verified reports
- Manufacturer-verified reports
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Causes of failure-to-treat VT/VF
Misclassification as supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) or atrial fibrillation (AF)
54.8%
Undersensing
21.1%
Failure to satisfy programmed rate/duration criteria
8.7%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Report classification
- Deaths
- 96 [11.2%]
- Injuries
- 585 [68.5%]
- Malfunctions
- 173 [20.3%]
Arrhythmia type by cause
- VT among events caused by misclassification as SVT/AF
- 89.5%
- VT among events caused by failure to satisfy rate/duration criteria
- 70.3%
- VF among events caused by undersensing
- 54.4%
- Not specified as VT or VF among events caused by undersensing
- 19.4%
Deaths by cause
- Deaths caused by undersensing
- 65.6%
- Undersensing represented only 21.1% of reports
Trend in US reports
- Number of reports increased faster than that of ICD patients
Original publication
Failure to treat ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation by implantable cardioverter-defibrillators. Heart Rhythm. Published 29 August 2024. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →