Patients who receive a secondary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) may be able to start driving again a little earlier than previously believed, according to a new study published in Circulation.
The authors examined data from the DREAM-ICD-2 study, which included 721 patients who received a new transvenous or subcutaneous secondary prevention ICD from January 2016 until December 2019. Seventy-nine percent of patients were men.
Patients were followed for a median time period of 760 days.
Overall, the risk of recurrent ventricular arrhythmia highest during the first 90 days, and it declined over time.
Also, the cumulative incidence of arrhythmic syncope leading to sudden cardiac incapacitation was 1.8% within the first 90 days of the procedure, and then it dropped to just 0.4% between 91 and 180 days.
These findings, the team wrote, suggest that recommendations stating patients should wait six months before returning to private driving after receiving a secondary prevention ICD may need to be reconsidered.
"Lowering driving restrictions to three months after the index cardiac event seems safe and revision of existing guidelines recommending should be considered in countries still adhering to a six-months period," wrote lead Christian Steinberg, MD, with the University Institute of Cardiology and Respirology of Quebec, and colleagues.
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