U.S. versus Canada in treatment of survivors of cardiac arrest

Survival of cardiac arrest due to ventricular arrhythmia not due to a transient or reversible cause is a slam-dunk indication for an implantable defibrillator. However, almost twice as many eligible patients in the U.S. receive this treatment as do those in Canada according to this report from CMAJ:

In Canada, 3793 patients survived to discharge after a cardiac arrest; 628 (16.6%) of these were implanted with a cardioverter defibrillator before discharge. The implant rate rose steadily from 5.4% in 1994/95 to 26.7% in 2002/03. In the United States, 23 688 (30.2%) of 78 538 such survivors received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator before discharge.