Letter to the Editor

Electrical Storm and Implanted Defibrillators

Authors: Charles P. Davis, MD, PhD

Abstract

To the Editor:


As more patients obtain automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillators (AICDs), EMS personnel and emergency medical centers will be required to treat the unique situations that such patients present to emergency center personnel. One unique presentation is electrical storm (multiple temporally related episodes of ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation)1,2 with an appropriately functioning AICD.3

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References

1. A comparison of antiarrhythmic-drug therapy with implantable defibrillators in patients resuscitated from near-fatal ventricular arrhythmias. The Antiarrhythmics versus Implantable Defibrillators (AVID) Investigators. N Engl J Med 1997;337:1576–1583.
 
2. Kuck KH, Cappato R, Siebels J, et al. Randomized comparison of antiarrhythmic drug therapy with implantable defibrillators in patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest:the Cardiac Arrest Study Hamburg (CASH). Circulation 2000;102:748–754.
 
3. Exner DV, Pinski SL, Wyse DG, et al. Electrical storm presages nonsudden death: the antiarrhythmics versus implantable defibrillators (AVID) trial. Circulation 2001;103:2066–2071.
 
4. Peters W, Kowallik P, Reisberg M, et al. Body surface potentials during discharge of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator. J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol 1998;9:491–497.
 
5. Connolly SJ, Dorian P, Roberts RS, et al. Comparison of beta-blockers, amiodarone plus beta-blockers, or sotalol for prevention of shocks from implantable cardioverter defibrillators: the OPTIC Study: a randomized trial. JAMA 2006;295:165–171.