• Arash Arya, Christopher Piorkowski, Simon Kircher, Philipp Sommer, Andreas Bollmann, Thomas Gaspar, and Gerhard Hindricks.
• Department of Electrophysiology, University of Leipzig, Heart Center, Leipzig, Germany. dr.arasharya@gmail.com
• Herz. 2009 Nov 1;34(7):539-44.

AbstractThe implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) has emerged as an accepted therapy for prevention of sudden cardiac death due to ventricular arrhythmias in selected groups of high-risk patients, however, it cannot prevent the ventricular arrhythmias. ICD shocks are painful, reduce the quality of life, and spontaneous episodes of ventricular tachycardia (VT) despite effective treatment by the ICD are associated with increased mortality. The recently published studies have shown the important role of catheter ablation in patients with structural heart disease and ICD who experienced appropriate ICD therapy due to recurrent VT. Successful catheter ablation in these patients prevents or reduces the number of VT recurrences (and ICD shocks) which will improve the quality of life and probably the long-term mortality. This review summarizes the results of recent important clinical studies in the field of catheter ablation of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with structural heart disease and ICD.

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