Transvenous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator leads: the weakest link.

Transvenous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) lead development was an important advance in arrhythmia management. Their evolution has been critical to the wide acceptance of ICDs for the treatment of ventricular arrhythmias and the prevention of sudden cardiac death. Indeed, it is unlikely that the 20-fold increase in annual ICD implants observed during the past 15 years would have occurred without the advent of these leads.1 Compared with their epicardial predecessors, transvenous ICD leads are easier to implant, are less costly, and result in substantially decreased morbidity and mortality.2