The review showed that the number of patients needed to treat to prevent one death ranged from 6.2 to 22 after 3 to 7 years of follow-up.

1. News From:
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Damian Becker, Manager of Media Relations
(516) 377-5370
October 24, 2013
ICDs Are Primary Defense Against Sudden Cardiac Death
Photo Caption (KannerwRevo): Dr. Lawrence Kanner, FACC, director of Electrophysiology
and Arrhythmia Services at South Nassau, displays a model of the Revo MRI™ SureScan®
pacing system, the first pacemaker in the U.S. specifically designed for use in a MRI
environment.
Photo Caption (BioEvia2): The Evia® pacemaker incorporates a wireless monitoring system
that immediately notifies the patient’s physician if the patient or the pacemaker is experiencing
complications.
Oceanside, NY – A literature review by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ) strongly supports the use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) as primary
prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) over non-ICD therapy.
The review is based on the outcomes of seven randomized, controlled trials that showed a
"high strength of evidence" that ICD reduces all-cause mortality and SCD. The review is meant
to be used by health plans, patients, providers, and purchasers to develop clinical practice
guidelines and other quality enhancement tools.
"What the AHRQ review proves is that ICDs are an effective, patient-centered therapy to
prevent sudden cardiac death (SCD) and for treating heart failure, while reducing unnecessary
hospitalizations," said Lawrence Kanner, MD, FACC, director of Electrophysiology and
Arrhythmia Services at South Nassau.
The review showed that the number of patients needed to treat to prevent one death
ranged from 6.2 to 22 after 3 to 7 years of follow-up. It also reported that in-hospital adverse
events caused by ICDs were infrequent (1-3%) and 20% of patients receive an inappropriate
shock in 1 to 5 years of follow-up.
Each year, SCD claims the lives of up to 460,000 people in the U.S. alone, and more
people die from SCD than from lung cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined. Nearly 22
million people worldwide currently suffer from heart failure, a debilitating condition in which

2. the heart weakens and gradually loses the ability to pump blood effectively. Approximately one
million new cases of heart failure are diagnosed annually worldwide, making it the most rapidly
growing cardiovascular disorder.
Dr. Kanner and South Nassau’s Center for Cardiovascular Health have been in the
forefront in providing heart failure patients on Long Island with the latest advancements in ICD
devices and electrophysiology services.
Dr. Kanner was the first on Long Island to implant the Viva® cardiac resynchronization
therapy with defibrillation (CRT-D); Incepta® ICD (recognized as the world’s smallest and
thinnest ICD); Evia® pacemaker (which incorporates wireless monitoring system that
immediately notifies the patient’s physician if the patient or the pacemaker is experiencing
complications) and Revo MRI™ SureScan® pacing system (the first pacemaker in the U.S.
specifically designed for use in a MRI environment).
In addition to ICDs, Dr. Kanner and electrophysiologists at South Nassau’s Center for
Cardiovascular Health use an array of advanced technologies to provide timely, accurate
diagnoses and therapies to treat the range of cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) and
defibrillator maintenance. Services include diagnostic studies, implantation and testing of
pacemakers, and radiofrequency catheter ablation for the treatment of potentially fatal irregular
heartbeats.
South Nassau Communities Hospital is a recipient of the American College of
Cardiology (ACC) Foundation’s National Cardiology Data Registry (NCDR) ACTION
Registry–Get With the Guidelines (GWTG) Silver Performance Achievement Award. The
GWTG program is a quality-improvement program that helps hospitals provide cardiac and
stroke care in accordance with the most up-to-date guidelines and recommendations. Hospitals
that continually meet or exceed the nationally accepted standards, or guidelines, improve their
quality patient care by turning guidelines into “lifelines”. Upon meeting specific criteria,
hospitals are recognized for performance achievement if at least 85 percent of their cardiac or
stroke patients are treated and discharged according to the American Heart
Association/American Stroke Association’s guidelines and recommendations.
South Nassau Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435
beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is
an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac,
oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In
addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and
elective angioplasty and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma
Knife® Perfexion radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the

3. New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the
American College of Surgeons and is recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by
the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. For more information, visit
www.southnassau.org.
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