January 26, 2012New England Journal of Medicine
Time for a Change — A New Approach to ICD Replacement
Population
Patients with depleted implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) batteries requiring generator replacement
Design
Editorial
Authors
Discussion
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Member takes
Implication
Questions the necessity of routine ICD generator replacements for all patients with depleted batteries.
Key Points
- To evaluate whether all patients with depleted implantable cardioverter–defibrillator (ICD) batteries warrant routine generator replacement.
- Analyzed national utilization patterns among more than 100,000 annual ICD procedures performed in the United States.
- Assessed clinical indications and necessity for generator replacements prompted by battery depletion.
- Generator replacements due to battery depletion account for at least 25% of the >100,000 annual ICD procedures in the United States.
- Questioned the prevailing practice of routine, automatic replacement for all individuals reaching battery end-of-life.
Structured PICO
P
Population
Patients with depleted implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) batteries requiring generator replacement
Questions the necessity of routine ICD generator replacements for all patients with depleted batteries.
Cite This Study
Kramer et al. (2012) studied this question.