Pacemakers, implantable cardioverter/defibrillators, and extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy: evidence-based guidelines for the modern era.

Early work examining interactions between extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) and implantable pacemakers or implantable cardioverter/defibrillators suggested that shockwave oversensing may result in inappropriate suppression of pacing, delivery of antitachycardia pacing therapy, delivery of inappropriate shock therapy, or outright damage to such devices. In the absence of national guidelines, those provided by manufacturers are nonuniform and practice patterns vary between centers. Improvements in SWL energy delivery as well as in device shielding and discrimination technologies have demonstrated improved safety data in recent years. We review these advances in both technologies as well as the most recent data to construct practice guidelines for the modern era.