Starting 2021 with new paper! Looking at longevity of 2.1Ah biventricular defibrillators (CRT-D) and perhaps help explain high rate of complications when patients need to undergo generator changes for battery depletion. More research is needed to examine the clinical and cost effectiveness of avoiding generator changes during a vulnerable physiologic time in the lives of CRT-D patients.

Key Points:

• These data demonstrated the first reversal in ICD battery longevity versus patient survival; the 2.1-Ah ICD battery life exceeded patient survival in a typical HFrEF cohort.
• Our results support the hypothesis that the acceleration of device OOS during the sixth to ninth years (when it is expected that roughly 98% of 1.0-Ah and 1.4-Ah CRT-D systems reach ERI) may explain the historically high rate of complications for ICD generator changes as compared with at the initial implantation.
• During the entire study, only 5.7% of 2.1Ah devices reached the ERI point (average time to ERI: 7.8 ±1.5 years) in up to 10.3 years of follow-up.

Read full manuscript at Journal of Innovations in Cardiac Rhythm Management.