Willemstad, April 14th , 2022 – On Wednesday April 13th Curacao Medical Center did its first leadless pacemaker implant by dr. White and dr. Delnoy. The leadless pacemaker, Micra®, is the smallest pacemaker in the world and is 93% smaller than traditional pacemakers. We implant these pacemakers in patients with a heart rhythm that is too slow.
In this case, we used a pacemaker without leads, which is inserted completely into the heart. This relatively new technique prevents scars in the upper chest and wire problems, compared to a traditional pacemaker. It also prevents pacemaker inflammation, as we sometimes see with the traditional pacemaker. In addition, the design of the leadless pacemaker means that patients have fewer medical complications and fewer restrictions after implantation. The estimated average life span of this pacemaker is between 8 and 13 years and will be substituted for a new one in time.
Due to the unique characteristics of this leadless pacemaker, this type of device is particularly suitable for patients with an increased risk of infections: such as dialysis patients (our first CMC patient) or patients whose history has already had, a pacemaker removed due to an infected system.
The cardiologist inserted a catheter (thin tube) into a vein in the patient’s groin and use it to place the leadless pacemaker in the right ventricle (right ventricle) of your heart. The catheter is then removed from the body. This procedure takes approximately 1 hour.
Since this patient has an increased risk of infection, implanting a leadless pacemaker is the greatest benefit for our patient. As after any pacemaker procedure, we keep the patient overnight for observation, this is sometimes perceived as disadvantageous by the patient, but we attach great importance to patient’s safety.
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