Empowered Patient Podcast Leadless Pacemaker Technology Minimally Invasive Procedure That Lowers Surgical Risk with Wade Demmer Medtronic
Wade Demmer, R&D Vice President at Medtronic, has developed a leadless pacemaker that is implanted on the heart through a minimally invasive procedure utilizing a catheter, potentially creating fewer complications and greater access for patients who could benefit from a pacemaker. This new design is a significantly smaller, safer, and longer-lasting device than traditional pacemakers and does not create a visible lump under the skin. Advancements in battery and computer technology have made the Micra next-generation pacemaker smarter, allowing cardiologists to treat a wider range of heart conditions.
Wase explains, "So yes, pacemakers have been around for about seventy years. They've been helping people save lives, live fuller lives, and improve quality of life for that whole time. But you know, if you think about the history of a pacemaker, a pacemaker is a computer inside a little box that's implanted in the body. And like any computer, a computer from 70 years ago and a computer from today are very different. You know, 70 years ago, a pacemaker would've been about the size of a hockey puck, but even a little bit thicker. And nowadays, pacemakers are not much bigger than a couple of silver dollars stacked together. So we've made really big advances."
"When you had those hockey puck-sized pacemakers or even modern-sized pacemakers, there's no place in the heart for it. And so they end up in the chest, and then there's a wire called the lead that goes down through the veins into the heart, and that's where the electricity gets delivered down to make the heartbeat. And that's also where the heart's electricity comes back up, so the pacemaker can know what's wrong. As we have pacemakers smaller and smaller, though, we suddenly reach a point where a radical downsizing is a possibility. And again, leveraging the computer technology of the world, getting a pacemaker inside the heart instead of in the chest."
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