WiP Seminar: Dr. Nathaniel Hawkins

Nathaniel Hawkins, MBChB, MD, MPH
Scientist, CHÉOS
Clinical Associate Professor, Division of Cardiology, UBC

Use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a linked analysis of prospective registries in British Columbia

In randomized controlled trials of secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) reduced the risk of all-cause and arrhythmic death. These studies enrolled patients with documented ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) and excluded those with reversible causes. Approximately half of patients with VF/VT out of hospital cardiac arrest surviving to discharge have reversible causes. Prior studies have suggested appropriate use of secondary prevention ICDs has been surprisingly low (7% to 34%), although these studies were conducted in the 1990s and early millennium, and none excluded patients with reversible causes. We therefore examined the rate, predictors and associated outcomes of ICD implant following OHCA in patients with shockable presenting rhythm and no reversible cause.

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