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Defibrillators made by St Jude Medical are prone to battery failure, FDA warns

BMJ 2016; 355 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i5571 (Published 14 October 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;355:i5571
  1. Michael McCarthy
  1. Seattle

Two defibrillators manufactured by St Jude Medical are prone to failure because of faulty batteries, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned in a safety communication issued on 11 October.1

The warning applies to implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-D) manufactured before May 2015, which are used to provide pacing for patients with bradycardia, defibrillation for those with dangerous tachycardias, and synchronization to improve cardiac function in patients with heart failure.

The devices should issue an alert, known as an elective replacement indicator (ERI) alert, when their batteries are …

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