Implantable ventricular cadioverter-defibrillator employing atrial pacing for preventing a trial fibrillation form ventricular cardioversion and defibrillation shocks

摘要

An implantable ventricular cardioverter/defibrillator applies a quantity of electrical energy to a heart for terminating a ventricular arrhythmia while preventing the induction of atrial fibrillation. The cardioverter/defibrillator includes a ventricular arrhythmia detector and an atrial pacer that delivers atrial pacing pulses to an atrium of the heart when the ventricular arrhythmia detector detects a ventricular arrhythmia. A generator applies a quantity of electrical energy to the heart in timed relation to a delivered atrial pacing pulse to terminate the ventricular arrhythmia to avoid inducing atrial fibrillation.