Mechanical/Surgical Revascularization in Patients with Ventricular Fibrillation and Coronary Artery Disease: Is It Enough, or Do We Also Need an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator?

摘要

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) affects around 300,000-450,000 people annually in the USA, representing around 50(percent) of all cardiac deaths. Patients with a medical history of ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) run a high risk of death in the short term, and studies dating back to the 1970s have shown a 45(percent) mortality rate at 2 years. SCD accounts for at least 50(percent) of patient deaths from heart failure and ischemia. From 1980 onward the positive effects of automatic implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD) in secondary prevention of SCD began to be recognized, but the suspicion that the ICD was only able to change death from sudden to expected in those patients who were too compromised to benefit from therapies other than chemotherapy caused a certain skepticism.