Background: Previous observational studies demonstrated that patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD) may benefit from implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy. A complete overview of outcome and complications after ICD therapy is currently not available. This study pools data from published studies on outcome and complications after ICD therapy in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Methods and results: A PubMed database search returned 27 studies on 16 cohorts reporting outcome and complications after ICD therapy in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In case of >1 publications on a particular cohort, the publication with the largest number of patients was included in the meta-analysis. ICD interventions, complications, and mortality rates were extracted, pooled, and analyzed. There were 2190 patients (mean age, 42 years; 38% women), most of whom (83%) received an ICD for primary prevention of SCD. Risk factors for SCD were left ventricular wall thickness ≥30 mm (20%), family history of SCD (43%), nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (46%), syncope (41%), and abnormal blood pressure response (25%). During the 3.7-year follow-up, the annualized cardiac mortality rate was 0.6%, the noncardiac mortality rate was 0.4%, and the appropriate ICD intervention rate was 3.3%. The annualized inappropriate ICD intervention rate was 4.8% and the annualized ICD-related complication rate was 3.4%.
Conclusions: This meta-analysis demonstrates a low cardiac and noncardiac mortality rate after ICD therapy in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Appropriate ICD intervention occurred at a rate of 3.3%/year, thereby, most probably, preventing SCD. Inappropriate ICD intervention and complications are not uncommon.