PATIENTS suffering slow heart rhythm in Essex are set to benefit after local surgeons implanted a new and innovative pacemaker.
Staff based at the world-renowned Essex Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC), part of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, carried out the country’s first procedure to place Abbott’s Aveir VR leadless pacemaker into a patient’s heart that suffers from a slower-than-normal rate.
A leadless pacemaker is smaller than other pacemakers and does not have electrical leads that would sit in the veins around the heart, helping to reduce the risk of lead fractures, pacemaker pocket infections, and vascular complications.
Explaining the benefits for patients, Dr Duncan Field, Cardiology Consultant at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The innovations of the new device allow us to provide pacemakers to more patients, such as those who have renal dialysis, or sicker patients where there is no vascular access from the chest to the heart.”
