ISSN: 1885-5857 Impact factor 2023 7.2
Vol. 68. Num. 11.
Pages 1044 (November 2015)

Letter to the editor
Guidelines on the Management of Implantable Cardioverter-defibrillators at the End of Life

Guías para el manejo de los desfibriladores automáticos implantables en las fases finales de la vida

Manuel Martínez-Sellés
Rev Esp Cardiol. 2015;68:226-3310.1016/j.rec.2014.11.007
Ignacio García-Bolao, Francisco Ruiz-Mateas, Victor Bazan, Antonio Berruezo, Oscar Alcalde, Juan Leal del Ojo, Juan Acosta, Manuel Martínez Sellés, Ignacio Mosquera
Rev Esp Cardiol. 2015;68:1044-510.1016/j.rec.2015.07.014
Ignacio García-Bolao, Àngel Moya i Mitjans, Francisco Ruiz-Mateas

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To the Editor,

In the article “Update in cardiac arrhythmias and pacing”,1 of which I am an author, reference is made to the joint document of the Sociedad Española de Geriatría y Gerontología (Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology), the Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos (Spanish Society for Palliative Care), and the Sección de Cardiología Geriátrica (Geriatric Cardiology Section) of the Spanish Society of Cardiology on the “Guidelines on the management of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators at the end of life”.2 Unfortunately, the following sentence was added to a paragraph I wrote: “However, to establish recommendations applicable to clinical practice, consensus documents need to be developed that include the knowledge and perspective of all the subspecialties, particularly electrophysiology and cardiac pacing, involved in this clinical context.” I feel obliged to clarify that these guidelines were developed in a meeting held in the Casa del Corazón (Madrid) with the Spanish Society for Palliative Care and with the participation of the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (120 attendees). The first author of the document is an electrophysiologist who attended this meeting. These guidelines have been published in the Revista Clínica Española,2 as well as in the Revista Española de Geriatría y Gerontología3 and in Medicina Paliativa.4 Because the editors of Revista Española de Cardiología requested that we obtain the endorsement of the Sección de Electrofisiología y Arritmias (Electrophysiology and Arrhythmias Section) of the Spanish Society of Cardiology, I contacted the president of this section, being as helpful as I could and accepting the suggested modifications but he repeatedly refused to endorse the guidelines. The recommendations of the document are indeed applicable to clinical practice and I regret that, for reasons I fail to understand, the report states the opposite.

References
[1]
I. García-Bolao, F. Ruiz-Mateas, V. Bazan, A. Berruezo, O. Alcalde, J. Leal del Ojo, et al.
Temas de actualidad en arritmias y estimulación cardiaca.
Rev Esp Cardiol., (2015), 68 pp. 226-233
[2]
T. Datino, L. Rexach, M.T. Vidán, A. Alonso, A. Gándara, J. Ruiz-García, et al.
Guías sobre el manejo de desfibriladores automáticos implantables al final de la vida.
Rev Clin Esp (Barc)., (2014), 214 pp. 31-37
[3]
T. Datino, L. Rexach, M.T. Vidán, A. Alonso, A. Gándara, J. Ruiz-García, et al.
Sociedad Española de Geriatría y Gerontología; Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos; Sección de Cardiología Geriátrica de la Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Guías sobre el manejo de desfibriladores automáticos implantables al final de la vida.
Rev Esp Geriatr Gerontol., (2014), 49 pp. 29-34
[4]
T. Datino, L. Rexach, M.T. Vidán, A. Alonso, A. Gándara, J. Ruiz-García, et al.
Guías sobre el manejo de desfibriladores automáticos implantables al final de la vida.
MEDIPAL., (2014), 21 pp. 32-38
Copyright © 2015. Sociedad Española de Cardiología
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