Minimally invasive, pericardial implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement in a young child

We report the successful minimally invasive placement of a pericardial implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) in a 16-kg child. A transvenous ICD dual coil was advanced through a small subxiphoid incision and screwed into the oblique sinus pericardium under fluoroscopic guidance. An additional sense-pace lead was sutured onto the right ventricular apex, and the generator was placed in the upper abdominal wall through the same incision. Threshold testing demonstrated successful defibrillation at 15 J. After implantation, the patient had two episodes of appropriate shock for ventricular fibrillation. The ICD system continues to show stable impedance at 6 months of follow-up.