Current clinical practice of subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator: Analysis using the JROAD-DPC...

Current evidence describing the characteristics of subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (S-ICD) therapy, its trend, and perioperative outcomes compared with transvenous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (TV-ICD) based on a real-world, large-scale database is scarce.

The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of current S-ICD therapy using a nationwide database.

A retrospective analysis of ICD implantation was performed using a nationwide database obtained between 2016 and 2020. A total of 8690 patients implanted with ICD (median age 65 [52-72] year; 6902 men; 2021 S-ICD recipients) were analyzed.

Younger patients were more prone to have S-ICD (P <.001). A history of ventricular fibrillation (VF) (odds ratio [OR] 2.45; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.04-2.93), nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) (OR 1.73; 95% CI 1.36-2.21), Brugada syndrome (BrS) (OR 3.14; 95% CI 2.48-4.00), and dialysis treatment (OR 2.02; 95% CI 1.44-2.82) were independent predictors of S-ICD selection on mixed-model logistic analysis. The proportion of S-ICD implantations has been increasing (P <.001), especially in patients with BrS (P <.001) and dialysis (P = .04). The proportion of combined complications after S-ICD implantation was low (1.3%) in the unmatched cohort and was comparable to TV-ICD in the 1:1 propensity-matched cohort of 3354 patients (1.5% vs 2.3%; OR 0.65; 95% CI 0.38-1.10).

S-ICD was more likely to be implanted in younger patients and those with a history of VF, nonsustained VT, BrS, and dialysis treatment. The proportion of S-ICD implantation increased, especially in patients with BrS. The incidence of in-hospital complications was low in S-ICD recipients.