UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s Hospital has performed Cedar Rapids’ first implant of the AVEIR DR, the world’s first dual-chamber leadless pacemaker system.
The procedure was completed by electrophysiologist Dr. Talha Farid, the first in the city to be trained on the Abbott-designed device.
The AVEIR DR is a minimally invasive pacemaker that treats abnormal or slow heart rhythms by sending electrical signals to both the upper and lower chambers of the heart. Unlike traditional pacemakers, the leadless system is implanted directly into the heart via catheter and does not require cardiac lead wires, which can reduce complications and shorten recovery time.
“The dual-chamber leadless pacemaker completely changes the paradigm for treating patients with heart rhythm conditions,” Dr. Farid said. “It opens new opportunities for patients we weren’t able to treat before. Now patients who were too immunocompromised to receive a traditional pacemaker may be able to be treated, because the risk of infection is significantly lower. There are also no lifting or arm movement restrictions and no incision to care for. We look forward to using the dual-chamber leadless pacemaker to help more patients achieve a better quality of life in a faster, more convenient way.”
The AVEIR DR system is about one-tenth the size of a traditional pacemaker and consists of two devices: one that paces the right ventricle and another that paces the right atrium. It uses Abbott’s i2i technology to communicate between the two devices via high-frequency pulses transmitted through the body’s blood, a design intended to conserve battery life. The devices can also be retrieved if therapy needs change or replacement is required.