Implantable defibrillator with left ventricular assist device compatibility

Implanted defibrillator (ICD) and HeartMate-II (Thoratec, Pleasanton, CA, USA) left ventricular assist device (LVAD) incompatibilities have been reported. In order to show which ICD would function regularly in Heart Mate II recipients, we conducted a systematic review of 39 consecutive patients with implanted ICD and HeartMate-II from our institution's LVAD registry. Forty-six ICDs were identified without device interactions in most ICD devices. However, loss of ICD to programmer telemetry was observed in four patients with V-193, V-196 and V-350 (St Jude Medical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) and one patient with an Ovatio DR (Sorin, Milan, Italy) requiring ICD replacement. The majority of all investigated ICDs operated without LVAD to ICD interaction. However, surgeons implanting the Heart Mate II in ICD patients should be aware of possible interactions and incompatible devices should not be recommended in HeartMate-II recipients.