Select a region
The world’s smallest pacemaker has been approved for use in the United States.
It’s one tenth of the size of a regular pacemaker, and is inserted via a catheter through the groin, removing the need for major surgery.
The Medtronic Micra TPS has been given the green light by the United States Food and Drug Administration after it proved successful in a trial of more than 700 patients.
Because it’s so small – about the size of the a large vitamin pill – it is cosmetically invisible and there’s no need for leads or a surgical pocket, which is usually placed below the collarbone with a traditional pacemaker.
The pacemaker provides advanced technology, with the tines on the end of the device delivering small electrical impulses to pace the heart.
It can respond to patients’ activity and automatically adjust.
Dwight Reynolds of the Cardiovascular Section at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centre, said: “For many years we’ve been hopeful that a transcatheter pacing solution – with a safety and effectiveness profile on par with conventional devices – would become available, and today Micra has achieved this milestone.
“In the clinical trial, the Micra was successfully implanted in nearly all patients, and met its safety and effectiveness endpoints by wide margins.”
It’s intended for use by patients with an irregular heartbeat.
The technology was used in the UK for the first time in 2014, when a patient in Southampton underwent the procedure as part of the global trial.
