Background: Little is known about the long-term outcome of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy in survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).
Methods and results: The frequency of lethal ventricular arrhythmias and whether ICD implantation can prevent recurrence of cardiac arrest were examined. Long-term (24.4+/-11.9 months) outcome was examined in 23 patients with OHCA who were treated with an ICD (OHCA group) and 35 patients without OHCA (non-OHCA group) who were treated with an ICD. Patients in both groups had same clinical backgrounds; however, those in the OHCA group showed a significantly lower incidence of induced ventricular arrhythmias (71%) than the non-OHCA group (96%). In the follow-up period, patients in the OHCA group had almost the same incidence of ICD discharge (30%) as patients in the non-OHCA group (40%). The rate of recurrence of ventricular fibrillation in the OHCA patients was 13%, and it was difficult to estimate the rate by induced ventricular arrhythmia.
Conclusion: The results suggest that ICD implantation for survivors of OHCA with favorable neurological recovery might be effective for preventing recurrence of cardiac arrest.