Patent ID: 7761153

Claim:
A method for delivering a therapy to a patient having a heart generating cardiac signals in order to terminate a tachycardia event of the heart, the tachycardia event having an event cycle length, comprising: sensing the cardiac signals generated by the heart; detecting the tachycardia event based, at least in part, on the event cycle length; delivering a first plurality of pacing pulses in response to the tachycardia event, a time between individual ones of the first plurality of pacing pulses defining a pacing cycle length, wherein each individual one of a plurality of prematurities are defined by a difference in time between the event cycle length and the pacing cycle length, a total prematurity associated with the first plurality of pacing pulses being equal to a sum of said plurality of prematurities; determining a return cycle length representative of an amount of time between the last one of the first plurality of pacing pulses and a first one of the cardiac signals generated by the heart immediately following the first plurality of pacing pulses; delivering a second plurality of pacing pulses of the plurality of pacing pulses if the return cycle length is greater than or equal to a sum of the event cycle length and the total prematurity associated with the first plurality of pacing pulses.