Influence of patients' age at implantation on mortality and defibrillator shocks

ConclusionOlder recipients of standard and CRT defibrillators have higher mortality but fewer ICD shocks and/or therapies compared with younger patients. These data highly suggest less benefit of ICD therapy with increasing age, presumably because of competing risks of non-arrhythmic mortality. The role of defibrillator therapy in older patients may need to be evaluated with randomized controlled trials.
Source: Europace - Category: Cardiology Source Type: research