An Intervention to Improve Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Deactivation Conversations

An Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD) is a device implanted in a patient\'s chest to monitor the heart rhythm and deliver shocks to terminate potentially lethal arrhythmias when necessary. While ICDs reduce sudden cardiac death, patients with ICDs eventually die of heart failure or other diseases. As patients near the end of life, physiologic changes (intrinsic and extrinsic to the heart) may affect the cardiac conduction system, leading to more arrhythmias and increasing the frequency of shocks. Because ICD shocks can cause pain and anxiety and may not prolong a life of acceptable quality, it is appropriate to consider deactivating the shocking function of ICDs as patients\' clinical status worsens and death is near. This will be a randomized controlled trial of a physician centered counseling and education intervention to improve clinician-patient communication about the management of ICDs.