CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Around 3 million Americans live with a pacemaker - a small electronic device that helps regulate their heart rate. As technology has advanced, so have the pacemakers on the market.
Now, UVA Health is the first hospital in the mid-Atlantic region to offer a new kind of wireless pacemaker.
Traditional wired or leaded pacemakers help the bottom right chamber of the heart. While this is a helpful device, it can also lead to complications with the leads, such as the risk of infection and possible follow-up procedures on the pacemaker.
The new technology is a pacemaker that is about the size of a grain of rice that gets implanted into the lower-left side of the heart, giving doctors a better shot at re-synchronizing the heartbeat. And because there’s no battery directly attached, long-term maintenance is simpler.
“Now, you do have to change the battery for the, you know, for the impulse generator, but that’s just underneath the skin, so it doesn’t involve going inside the heart to maintain, you know, maintain ongoing activity of the device. So it’s pretty unique technology in that regard.”
Dr. Oliver Monfredi, Electrophysiologist at UVA Health
The device is particularly beneficial for people suffering from heart failure or coronary artery disease.
So far, UVA Health has implanted one of the new pacemakers and has plans for future procedures.