Inability to communicate with ICDs: an underreported failure mode

The inability to perform telemetry on an ICD may have many potential causes. We report three recently identified cases where such a finding was indicative of unexpected device failure. Two of these cases involved identical failure mechanisms resulting from arcing of current within the high voltage hybrid. This placed the device into a high current state that caused rapid and complete battery depletion. There were no company alerts issued regarding this systematic problem. A multicenter arrhythmia device/lead database would be extremely useful in providing timely and unbiased information concerning device problems.