Mercy Medical Center of Sioux City has become one of the first Iowa hospitals to treat a patient with the world’s smallest pacemaker. Doctor Roque Arteaga of CardioVascular Associates implanted the bullet-sized device into a 79-year-old male patient. He says this type of pacemaker does not have a wire lead to attach to the patient’s chest, so the surgery is less intrusive and is done through a catheter.
The Medtronic Micra T-P-S device is comparable in size to a large vitamin. Arteaga says the actual implant procedure takes less than an hour and the pacemaker, despite its size, is self-powered
Arteaga says the patient can usually go home from the hospital the same day after four to six hours of recovery time. The pacemaker is used to treat Bradycardia, a condition characterized by a slow or irregular heart rhythm that causes dizziness, fatigue and fainting spells.
