Resumen

CONCEPCION, Roberto. Should every patient with an ejection fraction less than 30% receive an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator?. Insuf. card. [online]. 2008, vol.3, n.2, pp.80-84. ISSN 1852-3862.

Sudden death is a serious complication in patients with heart failure. It is mostly lethal and poorly predictable by conventional diagnosis methods. Implantable automatic defibrillators' use prevents significantly this complication in patients with demonstrated malignant arrhythmias. Some clinical trials have shown that the implant of a defibrillator diminishes the mortality in patient with severe systolic left ventricular dysfunction, but without evidence of serious arrhythmias. This has generated a debate in relation to if all patients with severe systolic ventricular dysfunction should be subjected to the implant of these devices. The present is a revision and discussion of the main works published recently in this respect, and also a critical point of view of the different fields that have been evaluated in controlled clinical and observational trials.

Palabras clave : Suden death; Heart failure; Implantable automatic defibrillators; Ventricular dysfunction.

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