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Heart Hospital of New Mexico/Dr. Lawrence German Performs First New Mexico Implant of St. Jude Medical's Microny K SR, The World's Smallest Pacemaker

7/11/2001 - Albuquerque, New Mexico: As a leading provider of state-of-the-art cardiac care to surrounding communities, Dr. Lawrence German/Heart Hospital of New Mexico performed the first implant in New Mexico of the Microny K SR, the world's smallest pacemaker. The Microny K SR pacemaker is designed to treat patients with bradycardia - potentially debilitating slow heart rates. The Microny K SR pacemaker is designed by St. Jude Medical, Inc., a Minnesota based manufacturer of medical devices designed specifically for the management of cardiovascular diseases.

On July 11, 2001, Dr. Lawrence German/Heart Hospital of New Mexico performed the implant of the single-chamber rate responsive Microny K SR pacemaker in a 73 year old woman with complete heart block. By all reports, the patient is doing well and the device performing appropriately.

As the name implies, pacemakers are devices that "pace" which is the delivery of an electrical stimulus to the heart to maintain a stable heart rhythm. Patients requiring a pacemaker typically have bradycardia, a slow heart rate defined as less than 60 beats per minute or any rate that is too slow to be physiologically appropriate for a patient's age, condition and activity level. Bradycardia can cause fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness and fainting or ear-fainting spells.

At only 12.8 g in weight and 5.9 cc in volume, the Microny K SSR is the world's smallest pacemaker. A little over the size of two quarters stacked together, the Microny II SR+ AutoCapture Pacing System is approximately 40% smaller than a standard single-chamber pacemaker. With its compact physiologic shape, the Microny K SR pacemaker is designed to ease implantability and improve patient comfort and aesthetics. The device is well suited for patients who would benefit from an ultra-small pacemaker.

The Microny K SR device is a single-chamber, rate-responsive pacemaker. "Single-chamber" refers to the device's ability to pace either the upper chamber of the heart (atrium) or the lower chamber of the heart (ventricle.) "Rate-responsive" means the device can automatically adapt pacing rates in accord with changes in patient activity.

The physician controls the Microny K SR pacemaker's operation and accesses its stored information using an external programmer that "talks" with the pacemaker via bi-directional telemetry, a technology similar to that used by NASA to communicate between Earth and satellites. Through this external programmer, the process of patient management and follow-up is both automated and streamlined, thereby saving valuable patient and clinician time.

The Heart Hospital of New Mexico, located in Albuquerque, is a 55-bed inpatient facility entirely dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

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