MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The first patient at the Mon Health Heart and Vascular Center to receive the world’s smallest pacemaker implant told the hospital that the surgery was a success.
Dr. John Lobban performed the surgery on 81-year-old Evangeline Cain of Elkins, who said she can “really tell a difference” in how she feels with the new pacemaker, which is just 10 percent of the size of a conventional pacemaker.
“It’s a big deal not to have a lead in your heart or in your vain,” Lobban said. “The weak link electrical lead is eliminated. It also almost for sure cuts down on complications — fractured lead, less likely to get infected.”
About the size of a vitamin capsule, the Micra Transcather Pacing System doesn’t have a lead — a wire that delivers energy from the pacemaker to the heart.
“Often times the weak link in those units would be the wire, the lead,” Lobban said. “And a broken lead is miserable, and an infected lead is really miserable.”
The hospital indicates that the leadless pacemaker is ideal for patients with atrial fibrillation and bradycardia because those conditions can be treated with single-chamber ventricular pacing, rather than dual-chamber. Atrial fibrillation is a quivering or irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke, and heart failure, according to the American Heart Association. Bradycardia is a condition where an individual suffers from a slower heart beat.
Unlike a traditional pacemaker, this much smaller alternative can be attached directly right into the heart with a catheter.
“It’s a little bit tricky to get it to sit still and to get it to attach,” Lobban said. “Then you have to test electrical parameters and get good electrical numbers before you leave it there and disconnect the delivery system from it.”
Dr. Lobban said the battery life of something so small is significant, and that’s why he believes this procedure is “spreading like wildfire.” Additionally, Lobban said the procedure reduces recovery time, the risk of complications, and is less invasive.
“When the batteries are bad, one of the choices will be just abandon it and put another one beside it,” he said. “That’s how small they are. The heart can handle two or three of them. It’s the future of pacing, and they will all be leadless probably in five years is my prediction.”
Representatives from Mon Health estimate the new procedure could help up to 40 of their patients each year.