Management of patients with ventricular arrhythmias and prevention of sudden cardiac death-translating guidelines into practice: results of the European Heart Rhythm Association survey.

Prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) remains a partly unsolved task in cardiology. The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines on management of patients with ventricular arrhythmias and prevention of SCD published in 2015 considered the new insights of the natural history of diseases predisposing to SCD. The guidelines improved strategies for management of patients at risk of SCD and included both drug and device therapies. The intention of this survey was to evaluate the extent of the disparities between daily clinical practice and the 2015 SCD ESC guidelines among electrophysiology centres in Europe. The results suggest that the adherence to guidelines is reasonably high and strategies for the management of ischaemic disease are well-established. Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator indications for primary prevention are a difficult topic, particularly in non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy. Disparities in the use of genetic testing are probably due to differences in local availability.