GVM Care & Research confirms its commitment to technological investments, this time in the interventional cardiology sector, thanks to the implantation of the
smallest pacemaker in the world performed on two patients by Dr. Saverio Iacopino and his team, in the GVM hospitals:
Maria Cecilia Hospital in Cotignola (Ravenna) and
Anthea Hospital in Bari.
The "mini pacemaker" is a Micra TPS transcatheter cardiac stimulation system, a real cardiocapsule, just over 2 centimeters long and weighting only 2 grams, which does not require any catheter or wire inserted into the veins. In conventional pacemakers the implantation of the device is performed externally to the heart and connected to catheters.
Thanks to this system, instead, it is placed transvenously, and fixed to the heart tissue thanks to metal hooks.
The patients who have been implanted with the Micra TPS are a 64-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman suffering from permanent atrial fibrillation, a disorder that causes an alteration of the heart rhythm.
The procedure was performed while the patients were awake and lasted about 30 minutes, which is half the time compared to a traditional operation, and was well tolerated. The two patients were discharged without complications the next day.
"This technology - says Dr. Iacopino -
completely changes the patient's point of view: by not leaving any scar, not feeling any device under the skin and actually having an invisible device, he no longer experiences the fear of being a cardiac patient and this psychological impact is extraordinary. In fact, the patient is not anymore a pacemaker wearer, but simply a cardiac device wearer without perceiving it at all with fewer limitations in terms of physical activity and risks for the implant: he is more protected than with a traditional pacemaker. "
In addition to the great advantage of no scarring after surgery, as Dr. Iacopino points out, the use of the new pacemaker reduces the time of operation and hospital stay, exposes to a
lower risk of complications, reduces the risk of exposure X-ray for both doctors as well as patients when a fluoroscopy is performed and improves the patient's quality of life and lifestyle. The implanted device is also "controllable" remotely with the opportunity to reduce the mobility costs of the patient and relatives, it can be explanted and repositioned by means of a specific recovery system.
Maria Cecilia Hospital and Anthea Hospital,
centers of excellence in the treatment of cardiological diseases, are among the 12 centers in Italy that are currently successfully participating in the experimentation program of this new technology.