Review: implantable cardioverter defibrillators reduce sudden cardiac death, all-cause mortality, and cardiac mortality.

D a t a s o u r c e s Studies were identified by searching MEDLINE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Web of Science, National Library of Medicine Gateway, Cardiosource, the Clinical Trials Registry, Clinicaltrials.gov, CRISP, the National Research Register, the GlaxoWellcome Clinical Trials Register, LILACS, OCLC ProceedingsFirst, and the National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database in September 2002. Conference proceedings and bibliographies of relevant papers were hand-searched, and experts, device manufacturers, and authors were contacted.