The pacemaker was designed to help treat congenital heart diseases in newborn babies, which affect about 1 in every 100 infants. According to Northwestern professor John A. Rogers, who led the study, “these children only need temporary pacing after a surgery. In about seven days or so, most patients’ hearts will self-repair. But those seven days are absolutely critical. Now, we can place this tiny pacemaker on a child’s heart and stimulate it with a soft, gentle, wearable device.”
How tiny is the world’s smallest pacemaker?
Answer: Smaller than a grain of rice.
A team of engineers at Northwestern University in Illinois have developed a pacemaker so small that it can fit into the needle of a syringe. This makes it easily injectable, even for the smallest of patients.
The pacemaker was designed to help treat congenital heart diseases in newborn babies, which affect about 1 in every 100 infants. According to Northwestern professor John A. Rogers, who led the study, “these children only need temporary pacing after a surgery. In about seven days or so, most patients’ hearts will self-repair. But those seven days are absolutely critical. Now, we can place this tiny pacemaker on a child’s heart and stimulate it with a soft, gentle, wearable device.”
Don’t let the size of the device fool you — the team says it delivers as much stimulation as traditional pacemakers. It is paired with a small heart rate sensor worn on the patient’s chest, which uses infrared LED to activate the pacemaker when it senses the wearer’s heart rate is off. And since most babies will no longer need the device after about a week, it is made from biocompatible components that allow it to dissolve into the body’s fluids once its task is complete. This means there’s no risk of complications from surgery either to install or remove the device.
The pacemaker was designed to help treat congenital heart diseases in newborn babies, which affect about 1 in every 100 infants. According to Northwestern professor John A. Rogers, who led the study, “these children only need temporary pacing after a surgery. In about seven days or so, most patients’ hearts will self-repair. But those seven days are absolutely critical. Now, we can place this tiny pacemaker on a child’s heart and stimulate it with a soft, gentle, wearable device.”
