Up to 3 million people in the United States have pacemakers, and about 200,000 new pacemakers are implanted each year. Pacemakers are battery-powered devices that are surgically implanted in the chest to regulate the heart’s rhythm.
A pacemaker is a small device used to treat Bradyarrhythmia. Bradyarrhythmia is when the heart beats too slow, impacting the heart’s ability to pump blood. Pacemakers send electrical pulses to help your heart beat at a normal rate and rhythm, so your heart can pump blood more efficiently to your body.
In the past, doctors at Med Center Health would implant a traditional, or transvenous, pacemaker by making an incision in the chest to implant the device under the tissue. Now, Med Center Health cardiologists, like Dr. Akhtar Amin, can implant a leadless pacemaker. A traditional pacemaker has a separate battery unit implanted under the skin with wires (leads) that are threaded through veins to reach the heart, while a leadless pacemaker is a single, small device that is implanted directly into the heart itself. This eliminates the need for separate leads, resulting in a less invasive procedure and smaller device size.
“Leadless pacemakers are a newer technology,” said Dr. Amin, an interventional cardiologist at Med Center Health Western Kentucky Heart & Lung. “With traditional pacemaker implantation, you have to make an incision on somebody’s chest and place a device under their skin with some leads passing into the heart, but with this small, leadless pacemaker, you can implant it directly into the heart by going up from an artery in the patient’s leg. There are many benefits to this. The patient is less likely to deal with the complications that can occur with a traditional pacemaker like bleeding or infection around the site of the pacemaker, or movements of the lead from their desired location.”
The procedure time and recovery time for a leadless pacemaker is also faster than traditional pacemaker surgery. Leadless pacemaker surgery typically takes about 30-45 minutes and about four hours of bed rest, then the patient is able to go home the next morning. With the traditional way of implanting pacemakers, the patient’s surgery can take up to two hours, and they will have to take care of their incisions for up to four weeks. Leadless pacemakers also last longer, leading to less pacemaker surgeries.
“After about 10 to 12 years with a regular pacemaker, the batteries run out, and you have to get something called a generator change, where you have to come back in, and we have to replace a battery,” said Dr. Amin. “With leadless pacemakers, they have a battery life of about 18 to 20 years, so you may just need one in your lifetime.”
Dr. Amin says most patients in need of a pacemaker are suitable candidates for a leadless procedure. To learn more about advanced pacemaker options and other cardiac treatments available at Med Center Health, please visit: medcenterhealth.org/heart.
-submitted by Med Center Health
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