WASHINGTON, D.C. – A healthy heart beats 60 to 100 beats per minute, but when that rate slows down, patients require a pacemaker. Traditional versions are bulky and need two long wire leads connected to an implanted battery, but now, a wire-free pacemaker is changing the game.
“From the moment that we’re born, it’s designed to automatically send out 60 to 80 electrical signals a minute,” explained Dr. Cyrus Hadadi, associate director of Cardiac Arrythmia Research at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
But the heart often loses the ability to regulate itself.
“So, instead of 60 or 80 beats a minute, it sends out 35 or 40,” Hadadi added.
So, for years, pacemakers have been implanted in a patient’s chest and leads, or wires, were threaded through the patient’s body.
“Historically, what has been available to us, is a traditional device that involves a fairly bulky metal unit that contains the battery and circuitry required to run the pacemaker and two wires,” said Dr. Zayd Eldadah, executive director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at MedStar Health.
This hospital is among the first in the nation to implant what’s called the Aveir Dual-Chamber Leadless Pacemaker. This tiny device is inserted through a vein and implanted in the heart. No surgery. No wires.
“With these new pacemakers, nobody will even know you have one,” Hadadi said.
Patient Jonathan Rose was recently offered both types of pacemakers and made a quick decision.
“Gee, it sounds like a no-brainer to me, if you can have all these, not have a pouch in your chest, not have to spend six weeks trying to figure out whether you can have a golf swing again or whatever,” said Rose.
“I want to see a day where everybody who needs a pacemaker, gets a leadless pacemaker and we don’t have to worry about problems with decade’s old leads running through your veins and into your heart,” Hadadi said.
The Aveir DR Leadless Pacemaker system was part of a clinical trial at MedStar and received regulatory approval in June 2023.