The smallest pacemaker; which is entirely contained within the human heart , has been successfully implanted at Meitra Hospital. The device which gives electrical impulses to make the heart contract is a lifesaving treatment for patients with absent or slow heart beats. The implantation was done in an elderly lady who had infection in the chest following a previous pacemaker procedure.

Pacemakers are device that are implanted to send minute electrical impulses into the heart muscle with an aim to maintain the required heart rate.

Explaining the need to replace the normal pacemaker with a leadless pacemaker, Dr Anees Thajudeen Senior Consultant – Cardiology and Cardiac Electrophysiology, Meitra Hospital said, “A leadless pacemaker, in comparison to a normal pacemaker, is a smaller self-contained device that is inserted using a catheter. Normally, pacemakers have a metal box which contains the battery and electrical circuits, that generate electrical impulses and one or two leads (special electrical wires) to carry the impulses to the heart. In our case, there was infection at the previous pacemaker site and, she had to undergo pacemaker pocket surgery and removal of the old pacemaker and the wires going to the heart. Further , the patient was a frail lady and needed to have a new pacemaker implanted without delay. We implanted Micra AV, almost 93% smaller in size than a normal pacemaker, directly into her heart after few days without making any incision on her chest. The potential advantage of using this leadless pacemaker is to eliminate medical complications that may arise from the chest incision and the leads used in the conventional pacemakers. It makes the procedure simpler and well tolerated for sick and elderly people and has very low  risk of complications like  infections.”  The patient was discharged two days after the procedure.