"Recalled" Riata ICD leads: Brainstorming conference aims for guidance

[Heartwire.com, January 20, 2012] A meeting of the minds in Minneapolis today aims, in part, to figure out what to do with the thousands of people in the US—about 79 000, according to St Jude Medical—who remain fitted with the company's "recalled" St Jude Medical Riata or Riata ST implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) leads.

There remains a lot of uncertainty about how to manage patients who have been implanted with Riata leads, whether or not they have shown signs of electrical abnormalities, according to Dr Robert G Hauser (Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Minneapolis Heart Institute, Minneapolis, MN), who along with Dr David L Hayes (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN) is directing today's meeting.