Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Therapy

t times, our clinical intuition may lead us down the wrong path, but the scientific method helps direct us back to the proper course. In 1970, Mirowski et al 1 published their first experience with the standby automatic defibrillator in animals, but their innovative approach to prevent sudden cardiac death was not initially accepted by the cardiac community. Concerns about the practicality of the implanted defibrillator to save lives stimulated Mirowski and colleagues to perform additional investigations; this culminated in their 1980 publication documenting life-saving internal defibrillation with an implantable device in 3 patients. The era of the clinical use of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy began just 20 years ago, and progress in the field since that time has been astounding.