When a recipient of defibrillator undergoes surgery, the surgeon must be advised a) to use the electrical scalpel in the bipolar mode, b) to use it for very short periods of time, and c) to place the plates of the scalpel away from the pulse generator of the defibrillator.

To completely eliminate the risk of clinically significant interference, pacing must be programmed to an asynchronous mode (available from the Lumax 740 model and subsequent models) and detection and therapies must be turned off. This burdensome strategy mandates the pre-operative programming and the postoperative interrogation and re-programming of the device with verification of the thresholds.

One other option consists in placing a magnet over the pulse generator to inhibit all therapies. The magnet also prevents the memorization of artifacts interpreted as arrhythmic episodes, avoiding the need to delete the genuine episodes that occurred before exposure to the interferences (since this is a looping memory of finite storage capacity). The magnet effect is reversible, and the therapies and memorization of the episodes resume upon removal of the magnet. The patient, who is no longer protected by the defibrillator, must be monitored throughout the procedure. The use of a magnet must not prevent a full postoperative interrogation of the device.