Leadless pacemaker will soon reduce the complications and risks with the routine pacemaker by almost 50 per cent, Continental Hospitals Senior Consultant and Chief of Interventional Cardiology Dr Bharat V Purohit said. 

Talking to media persons in Hyderabad on Tuesday, Dr. Barat said pacemakers were the most common way to treat Bradycardia to help restore the heart's normal rhythm and relieve symptoms by sending electrical impulses to the heart to increase the heart rate. 
"Leadless pacemaker was cheaper and life span also more as compared to traditional Pacemaker. The patient can be discharged from the hospital within the next day of implantation," he said. 

While explaining the recent case which is the first of its kind in two Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to implant the world’s smallest pacemaker in a 81-year-old patient by the Continental Hospital on September 22, Dr Bharat said that the 81-year-old gentleman had slow heartbeat (Sick Sinus Syndrome) and was suggested a pacemaker. 

“ In view of the prior history of angioplasty for which he is on a blood thinner(Antiplatelet Agents) and hence stopping these medicines for doing conventional Pacemaker would have caused a risk. Besides in view of advanced age, he was very reluctant for any surgical procedure. Hence the only option of this leadless pacemaker. This new Leadless pacemaker is implanted through the leg. It attaches directly to the walls of the heart and gives electrical signals for maintaining a normal heart rate. This new pacemaker is entirely MRI compatible and can adjust the heart rate according to the patient’s activity and needs of the body”, he said. 

Comparable in size to a large vitamin capsule, the doctor decided to use the leadless pacemaker because unlike traditional pacemakers, the device does not require cardiac wires (leads) or “a surgical pocket under the skin to deliver pacing therapy.) Leadless pacemaker is a boon for patients who have an infection from an earlier implanted pacemaker or its leads or blocked veins in the chest or who is a poor candidate of any surgical procedure or who is on a blood thinner which can lead to bleeding complications during surgical pocket formation. It has reduced the complications and risks associated with the routine pacemaker by almost 50 per cent, like lead infection, pacemaker pocket infection, venous obstruction ”, Dr. Bharat added.