Pacing For Life

Basics of a PaceMaker

           In the European Union a revolutionary product in the medical world has been produced, a tiny wireless pacemaker.  Over the last couple of years pacemakers have been troublesome to insert and are not always the most reliable.  Since pacemakers today have wires, they can often have glitches or even move due to the contractions of the heart.  Due to this many of the pacemakers have been recalled because the people who use them depend on them to never have glitches and if something went wrong with it, their lives could be at stake.  

• The device is placed via a steerable catheter that’s inserted into the femoral artery.  The pacemaker is then injected inside the heart where it will it stick to the ventricle (lower part) of the heart.  
• The procedure is estimated to take around half-hour.  From this position it can directly send electrical impulses to the heart to slow down the heart rate.  
• This version of a pacemaker’s battery is supposed to last nine to thirteen years.  If something were to go wrong, it could be removed a similar way it was injected.  
• The device still has to be approved by FDA and undergo more human trials.
• The modern pacemaker also helps stabilize heartbeat during physical activity as well making the patient able to maintain their health without worrying that they might have a cardiac arrhythmia.   

This pacemaker is an innovative and easier solution for people with slow heart rate conditions.  The pacemaker was originally introduced and used on a human in 1958 .  It was the first device to ever be surgically placed in a human . The first pacemaker was meant to stabilize a heart if it sensed that the heart was off beat, now they help and produce the correct amount and time span of impulse using multiple electrodes while the original only used one electrode.

Among the United States and Europe there are 780 patients who will participate in a trial. Providence, Oregon is the only site in the Northwest of the U.S. that participants will be tested. Dr. Randy Jones of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center recalls that the procedure is fairly simple as opposed to the old pacemakers. The full article can be seen at: Providence Pacemaker.

I really believe that these new pacemakers are extremely beneficial to people with serious heart conditions. I have a family member who has a pacemaker and the surgery alone was stressful.  She has the older pacemaker and the recovery was very long. She also had pre-existing conditions that made surgery an even bigger risk because if she got an infection there would have been other complications that could have increased problem to be much worse.  I think this a new perspective for electrical engineers because they would be working side by side with biomedical engineers to produce a greater product. The combination of these two professions cannot only make pacemakers, but create other medical products to help patients continue on with their daily lives and even save lives.