UK patient fitted with pill-sized pacemaker

The patient at Southampton General Hospital becomes the first in the UK to be fitted with Medtronic’s Micra Transcatheter Pacing System, a wireless device that is one-tenth the size of traditional models and is implanted directly in the heart.

Pacemakers are currently inserted under the skin via an incision in the chest and connected to the heart through a lead that carries electrical signals to correct slow or irregular heartbeats. A major drawback, however, is that can require replacement due to broken or dislodged wires.

The new device, which is placed inside the wall of the heart by a catheter passed up through the groin, delivers electrical impulses from an electrode, removing the need for a lead to transmit signals.

‘While pacemakers have saved countless thousands of lives over the past seven decades since the first devices were implanted, one of the major drawbacks has been complications related to the pacing lead that is put in to deliver electrical impulses to the heart,’ said consultant cardiologist Prof John Morgan, who performed the first two procedures with colleague Dr Paul Roberts as part of a clinical trial of the device at Southampton General Hospital.