Podcast 641: Leadless Intracardiac Pacemaker

Contributor: Jared Scott, MD

Educational Pearls:

• Small capsule pacemaker (2.5 cm, 1 ml volume) resides in the heart without any associated wires or leads like a traditional pacemaker
• The new version has a 6 year battery life, after which it can be deactivated and a traditional pacemaker put in place
• Cost is around 2-4 times that of a traditional pacemaker
• NEJM study from 2015 showed it met the primary efficacy endpoint in 90% of patients and the primary safety endpoint in 93.3% of patients
• Follow up study showed 3% complication with the intracardiac pacemaker compared to 9% in traditional

References

Groner, Ashley PA-C; Grippe, Kristen PA-C The leadless pacemaker, Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants: June 2019 - Volume 32 - Issue 6 - p 48-50 doi: 10.1097/01.JAA.0000554750.85170.d4

Reddy VY, Exner DV, Cantillon DJ, Doshi R, Bunch TJ, Tomassoni GF, Friedman PA, Estes NA 3rd, Ip J, Niazi I, Plunkitt K, Banker R, Porterfield J, Ip JE, Dukkipati SR; LEADLESS II Study Investigators. Percutaneous Implantation of an Entirely Intracardiac Leadless Pacemaker. N Engl J Med. 2015 Sep 17;373(12):1125-35. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1507192. Epub 2015 Aug 30. PMID: 26321198.

Chan KH, McGrady M, Wilcox I. A Leadless Intracardiac Transcatheter Pacing System. N Engl J Med. 2016 Jun 30;374(26):2604. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc1604852. PMID: 27355553.

Summarized by John Spartz, MS3 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD