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Tuesday 10 Nov 2015 - 12:25 Makkah mean time-28-1-1437
Riyadh, (IINA) - Two Saudi hospitals - King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital (KFAFH) and Prince Sultan Cardiac Center (PSCC) - have become the first medical facilities in the world to use the smallest pacemaker, Arab News reported.
KFAFH consultant electro-physiologists Dr. Raed Sweidan and Dr. Fayez Boukhari along with PSCC consultant electro-physiologists Dr. Ahmad Al-Fagih and Dr. Khaled Dagriri have successfully implanted the devices in five patients.
“This new advanced miniaturized technology is highly favored by patients because of its small size and unique design”, Al-Fagih told Arab News on Monday.
He noted that this procedure could benefit patients by potentially reducing complications and recovery times observed with traditional surgical pacemaker implants.
At less than the size of conventional pacemakers, and comparable in size to a large vitamin capsule, the pacemaker, named the Micra TPS, provides the most advanced pacing technology available while being cosmetically invisible.
“It’s also small enough to be delivered with minimally invasive techniques through a catheter, and implanted directly into the heart”, Al-Fagih continued.
He pointed out that the Micra TPS can be repositioned or retrieved after it is attached to the heart if necessary. “Unlike other traditional pacemakers, the Micra TPS does not require the use of wires known as leads or a surgical ‘pocket’ under the skin”, he said. Instead, the device “is attached to the heart with small tines and delivers electrical impulses that pace the heart through an electrode at the end of the device”.
Despite its miniaturized size, the pacemaker has an estimated 10-year battery life. The device responds to patients’ activity levels by automatically adjusting therapy, he said.
He added that it is approved for full body MRI scans to provide patients with access to the most advanced imaging diagnostic procedures. He also said that pacemaker therapy is the most common way to treat bradycardia, a slow heartbeat, with more than 1 million pacemakers implanted worldwide each year.
Al-Fagih said that the Micra TPS is available for patients who benefit from single-chamber pacing as it paces one chamber of the heart (the right ventricle).
AG/IINA
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