Defibrillators are superior to antiarrhythmic drugs in the treatment of ventricular tachyarrhythmias

Sudden cardiac death accounts for approximately 50%of all cardiovascular deaths, making the developmentof treatment strategies a high medical priority. Non-pharmacological measures, such as map-guided anti-tachycardia surgery or catheter ablation are onlyapplicable to a minority of patients with ventriculartachyarrhythmias, whereas antiarrhythmic drug therapyand implantation of automatic cardioverter-defibrillators could possibly be applied to a greatmajority of patients.The dilemma for the physician is now to choosethe best therapy for any given patient at a time whenresults from randomized comparisons of implantabledefibrillators and antiarrhythmic drugs will only beavailable in years hence. Therefore, the purpose of thispaper is to portray the evidence currently available forthe superiority of implantable cardioverter-defibrillatortherapy over antiarrhythmic drugs.