Engineers at Northwestern University in Illinois have developed the world’s smallest pacemaker, which could be used to help newborns with congenital heart defects.
The tiny device is smaller than a grain of rice, meaning that it can be fitted into a syringe and injected into the body.
It is designed for patients who only need temporary heart pacing, and the biocompatible components dissolve harmlessly into the body after it is needed.
This process is far less invasive than the extensive open-heart or endovascular surgery currently required to fit traditional pacemakers.
Surgery also poses potential complications including infections, lacerations and perforations of the heart muscle, as well as issues involving external power supplies and control systems.
This can make it particularly valuable for using with infants, though it can also work with adult heart issues.
Experimental cardiologist Igor Efimov, who co-led the study, said that children were the primary motivation for the device.
He said that around 1% of infants were born with congenital heart defects.
Most self-repair in around a week, but keeping the heart working properly during that period is crucial.
The tiny pacemaker is powered by bursts of light
The pacemaker itself is paired with a soft and flexible wearable device that sits on the patient’s chest to control the pacing.
When the wearable device detects an irregular heartbeat, it shines short pulses of light that are able to penetrate the skin, breastbone and muscle in order to control the pace.
According to Northwestern, bioelectronics pioneer and study co-author John A. Rogers had previously invented the concept of bioresorbable electronic medicine, which uses electronic components that give the patient a therapeutic benefit before dissolving harmlessly in the body.
The researchers’ first attempt at a miniature pacemaker was thin, flexible and resorbable, but a physical receiver antenna limited their ability to miniaturise the device.
They developed the light pulse system to control the pacemaker, allowing them to get rid of the wireless antenna altogether and dramatically reduce the size of the device.
Another innovation involved reimagining the pacemaker’s power source – instead of using wireless near-field communication (NFC), which is used for contactless payments and connecting devices, they utilised a galvanic cell.
This acts as a battery that transforms chemical energy within the body into the electrical energy used to power the device.
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