translated from Spanish: World’s smallest pacemaker implant saves life in the US

Miami.- A South Florida man who suffered a heart block and loss of consciousness managed to survive with the implant of the world’s smallest, wireless, vitamin capsule-sized maracapasos, which meant the first graft of its kind in the southeastern United States.Eugene, 74, suffered the mishap last weekend while at his home home in Homestead, a town south of Miami.

Following his wife’s call to the emergency number, Gamble was transferred to Jackson South Medical Center, where he was implanted last Wednesday with the Micra AV device, the world’s smallest pacemaker with atrioventricular synchronisation (AV). According to a statement from the Jackson Health System, Gamble’s heart rate measured 38 beats per minute, much lower than the normal resting heart rate for an adult, ranging from 60 to 100 beats per minute. The septuagenarian “had an AV blockage, a type of heart block in which electrical signals between the chambers of the heart (the atria and ventricles) are impaired,” the statement dated Friday indicates. Dr. Ivan Mendoza, a cardiac electrophysiologist who took over Gamble’s case, indicated that this is
innovative technology that revolutionizes the way we treat patients who need a pacemaker

This week we saved the life of Eugene Gamble with a pacemaker the size of a vitamin! We’re the first hospital in Florida, and first in the southeast region of the US, to have implanted the world’s smallest life-saving pacemaker for patients with AV block. https://t.co/XQmBIkQeMU pic.twitter.com/xDL1oodSNT — Jackson Health System (@JacksonHealth)
February 14, 2020

The new device, produced by Medtronic, was approved last January by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The AV Micra extends the most advanced stimulation technology to one-tenth the size of a traditional pacemaker.
This is the first type of pacemaker that synchronizes the upper and lower chambers of the heart wirelessly, a technology that applies to about 80% of patients who need a pacemaker, and now have the advantage of a lower risk of complications, infections and a shorter time of hospitalization

details the statement. The minimally invasive successful procedure took less than 30 minutes, as the device is inserted through a catheter and implanted directly into the heart “with small teeth”. Gamble thanked the medical team that saved his life and allowed him to “return home with (…) his wife, five children, 21 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.” Because it has the greatest experience with such wireless devices, the Jackson was the first hospital system chosen in the state of Florida to introduce this device, according to the statement.



Original source in Spanish