Heart Failure Associated with Death Among Pediatric Patients Admitted With Existing Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators

Background: There are no data regarding the incidence of death or factors associated with death among pediatric patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). Out-of-hospital deaths are not tracked, however the nationally-representative Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID) may provide some insights. We hypothesized that death among patients with existing ICDs was most likely related to the presence of heart failure (HF) or cardiomyopathy rather than the underlying diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD), primary arrhythmia, in-hospital procedures or ICD complications during the admission. Methods: KID was used to identify all hospitalizations of patients …