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Background After several days of loading, oral amiodarone, a class III antiarrhythmic, is highly effective in controlling ventricular tachyarrhythmias; however, the delay in onset of activity is not acceptable in patients with immediately life-threatening arrhythmias. Therefore, an intravenous form of therapy is advantageous. This study was designed to compare the safety and efficacy of a high and a low dose of intravenous amiodarone with bretylium, the only approved class III antiarrhythmic agent. Methods and Results A total of 302 patients with refractory, hemodynamically destabilizing ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation were enrolled in this double-blind trial at 82 medical centers in the United States. They were randomly assigned to therapy with intravenous bretylium (4.7 g) or intravenous amiodarone administered in a high dose (1.8 g) or a low dose (0.2 g). The primary analysis, arrhythmia event rate during the first 48 hours of therapy, showed comparable efficacy between the bretylium group and the high-dose (1000 mg/24 h) amiodarone group that was greater than that of the low-dose (125 mg/24 h) amiodarone group. Similar results were obtained in the secondary analyses of time to first event and the proportion of patients requiring supplemental infusions. Overall mortality in the 48-hour double-blind period was 13.6% and was not significantly different among the three treatment groups. Significantly more patients treated with bretylium had hypotension compared with the two amiodarone groups. More patients remained on the 1000-mg amiodarone regimen than on the other regimens. Conclusions Bretylium and amiodarone appear to have comparable efficacies for the treatment of highly malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Bretylium use, however, may be limited by a high incidence of hypotension.

K.A. Ellenbogen, G.N. Kay, B.L. Wilkoff, eds. 1007 pp, illustrated. Philadelphia, Pa: WB Saunders Company; 2000. $225.00. ISBN 0-7216-7683-9 The second edition of the textbook edited by Ellenbogen, Kay, and Wilkoff has changed its name from Clinical Cardiac Pacing to Clinical Cardiac Pacing and Defibrillation . Although it has grown from 838 to 1007 pages, the number of contributors has declined from 80 to 73 and the number of chapters from 42 to 36. The book has a total of 847 illustrations (average 24/chapter) and 4316 references (average 119/chapter). There has been a considerable renewal of authors—the second edition retains only 32 of the 80 original contributors. As the new title indicates, the editors have …

Background Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) with intravenous electrode systems and downsized generators can be implanted by use of operative techniques similar to those employed for the insertion of permanent pacemakers. However, the safety, efficacy, and long-term follow-up of simplified implantation procedures remain to be evaluated. This report is a prospective long-term evaluation of nonselected patients receiving ICDs in the prepectoral subfascial position under conscious sedation. Methods and Results Clinical characteristics of the 231 consecutive patients included a mean age of 63 years, a male-to-female ratio of 6.4, a left ventricular ejection fraction of 0.34, a mild-to-moderate heart failure in 91%, coronary artery disease in 84%, and a history of aborted sudden cardiac death or refractory ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Insertion of transvenous leads and prepectoral subfascial ICD implantation were performed in electrophysiology laboratories under local anesthesia and conscious sedation with intravenous midazolam and propofol. Successful implantation in all patients (operation time, 80±32 minutes, mean±SD) irrespective of body size and skin thickness was free of major complications, including need for emergency intubation. After surgery, 1 pocket hematoma, 1 seroma, and 1 pneumothorax required treatment. There was no operative or first-month mortality. During long-term follow-up averaging 453±296 days, six leads required repositioning, but pocket erosions or infections did not occur. First-year total survival was 97%. Conclusions Implantation under conscious sedation of ICDs in the prepectoral subfascial position is a safe and effective procedure with low operative and postoperative morbidity and favorable long-term outcome.

Background The purpose of this study was to prospectively analyze redetection problems after unsuccessful shock with different lead systems and devices. Methods and Results We prospectively analyzed detection and redetection characteristics among transvenous implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) using standard bipolar and integrated bipolar sensing. Monophasic and biphasic ICDs were included. Subthreshold shocks were intentionally delivered, and redetection of ventricular fibrillation (VF) was assessed before discharge and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months later. Sensing of VF resulting from antitachycardia pacing and low-energy cardioversion (≤2 J) also was analyzed. Before inclusion in the study, each patient underwent subthreshold shock testing at three different time intervals. Among the 160 ICDs with standard bipolar sensing, 530 VF inductions were analyzed. After the failed shocks, undersensing was more frequent (3% versus 20%, P P 6-mm electrode separation. After antitachycardia pacing in 1 patient and a 2-J shock in 1 patient, ventricular tachycardia turned into VF, which was undetected. Both patients used the Endotak 60 series–Cadence combination. None of the patients showing VF undersensing had sudden death at follow-up. Only 3 of the 12 patients with sensing malfunction were on antiarrhythmia drugs at the time of testing. Analysis of endocardial electrograms showed that failure to redetect VF is not associated with a uniform reduction but with a rapid and repetitive change of electrogram amplitude. Conclusions Standard bipolar sensing redetects VF more effectively than integrated bipolar sensing. Endocardial electrogram analysis provides insights into the understanding of the mechanism of undersensing, and certain lead-device combinations result in a higher occurrence of VF undersensing. The clinical relevance of this phenomenon remains unknown.