NEW YORK, NY – A doctor has implanted the first miniature-sized, leadless cardiac pacemaker directly inside a patient’s heart without surgery. The leads-free pacemaker is implanted directly inside the heart during a catheter-guided procedure through the groin via the femoral artery. The device implanted by Vivek Reddy from The Mount Sinai Hospital, resembles a small metal silver tube, and is only a few centimetres in length, making it less than ten per cent the size of a traditional pacemaker.
The Nanostim device, made by St Jude Medical, is being tested for safety and efficacy in an international, multicentre clinical trial called LEADLESS II, which is planning to enroll 670 patients at 50 centres across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. “This clinical research trial will be testing the latest innovative, non-surgical pacemaker option for patients experiencing a slowed heart beat,” said Reddy, the study’s co-investigator. “This new-age, tiny pacemaker may ultimately be safer for patients because it doesn’t have leads or have to be inserted under the skin of a patient’s chest, like a traditional cardiac pacemaker,” Reddy said. (PTI)