CHENNAI: He had dizziness, fatigue and also spells, all because of his heart condition, including irregular heartbeat. But at 87, he was too old to have a traditional pacemaker. That was when doctors at a city hospital considered the latest innovation, miniature pacemaker.
This equipment, which measures only one-tenth of a traditional pacemaker and was approved for use in the country only in April, is now helping his heart.
“Traditional pacemaker will require a vein (subclavian vein) in the heart to insert the wires in the heart chamber. But in this case, both the right and left sides of the vein were blocked. If not for this new device, we would have had to go for open heart procedure, which comes with its own risk considering the patient’s age,” said T R Muralidharan, Head, Department of Cardiology, Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre (SRMC), Porur, who headed the team of doctors.
The miniature pacemaker - Micra Transcatheter Pacing System in official parlance - comes without wires or a surgical pocket under the skin to deliver pacing therapy, the doctors said.
“As it is a small device, we delivered it through a catheter via femur vein and implanted it directly into the heart,” explained B Vinod Kumar, interventional cardiologist at SRMC. The procedure was completed in just about 20 minutes, doctors added.
The patient had only 15-20 beats, much lower than the normal 60 beats per minute, said Muralidharan, pointing out that about 30-40 per cent of his patients have irregular heart beat rate. However, most of them don’t realise it is a complication of the heart, as the symptoms are dizziness, fatigue and fainting spells. Regular check-ups are required to detect the problem. “While about 30 lakh people in India need pacemakers, only 30,000 get the procedure done,” said Muralidharan.
The life of the device, which costs around `seven to eight lakhs, is five years. The miniature pacemaker is designed to automatically adjust pacing therapy based on a patient’s activity levels, doctors said.
The procedure was performed in November and the patient discharged and doing well, they added.