The Role of Defibrillation Testing

The induction and termination of ventricular fibrillation at the time of defibrillator insertion (defibrillation testing [DT]) has traditionally been an integral component of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation. However, over the last 10 years, published series suggested a high rate of first-shock efficacy for clinical ventricular arrhythmias, even if no DT was done. Over the same time, several published reports and series …