According to latest reports, hospitals in Saudi Arabia have become the first to successfully implant the world’s smallest pacemaker in five patients.
Raed Sweidan and Fayez Boukhari, consultant electrophysiologists at King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital and Ahmad Al-Fagih and Khaled Dagriri, consultant electrophysiologists at Prince Sultan Cardiac Center, successfully implanted the devices in five patients.
World’s Smallest Pacemaker
They used the new advanced miniaturized technology which is highly favored by patients because of its small size and unique design.
This procedure can benefit patients by potentially reducing complications and recovery times observed with traditional surgical pacemaker implants.
At less than the size of traditional pacemakers, and comparable in size to a large vitamin capsule, the pacemaker – the Micra TPS – provides the most advanced pacing technology available while being cosmetically invisible.
The pacemaker therapy is the most common way to treat bradycardia, a slow heartbeat, with more than 1 million pacemakers implanted worldwide each year.
It’s also small enough to be delivered with minimally invasive techniques through a catheter, and implanted directly into the heart.
Once positioned, the pacemaker is attached to the heart wall and can be repositioned or retrieved if necessary.
The Micra TPS is available for patients who benefit from single-chamber pacing as it paces one chamber of the heart (the right ventricle).
Unlike other traditional pacemakers, the Micra TPS does not require the use of wires known as leads or a surgical ‘pocket’ under the skin.
Instead, the device is attached to the heart with small tines and delivers electrical impulses that pace the heart through an electrode at the end of the device.
Despite its miniaturized size, this World’s Smallest pacemaker has an estimated 10-year battery life. The device responds to patients’ activity levels by automatically adjusting therapy.