What Are the Benefits and Harms?

The main potential benefit of an ICD is that if and when you have a dangerous heart rhythm, the device will try to correct it by delivering a shock. This resets the heart and keeps it beating. A dangerous heart rhythm can cause you to die within minutes if it’s not treated with a defibrillator.

Although people can survive a dangerous heart rhythm without an ICD, they would need to receive a shock with an automated external defibrillator (AED) by a bystander or a paramedic within minutes of having one. Many patients die before emergency help can reach them.

Getting an ICD placed is generally a low risk procedure. But, as with any surgery, there are potential harms. For example:

• Bleeding or bruising   
• Infection near the surgical site
• Injury to your heart or lungs
• Damage to the blood vessels where the wires are inserted
• Device malfunction (when the device isn’t working as it should)

ICDs usually need to be replaced every eight to 10 years when the battery wears down. This requires another surgery to insert a new device. Replacing or removing ICD wires is rare but is sometimes required, and would mean another procedure

Once an ICD is placed, it can take some time to get used to. Some patients may develop anxiety or depression. This is more common for people who are shocked multiple times or have a lot of symptoms or limits in what they can do related to their heart condition. Sometimes, people may wonder if they made the right decision if they haven’t been shocked, which can cause worry. It turns out that as many as 8 out of 10 people don’t get shocked, so it’s fairly normal.

It’s important to remember that an ICD will not make you feel better or treat the heart condition that makes the heart beat incorrectly. But it will attempt to guard against you dying suddenly.