“Without Professor Leclercq and the cardiology team of the Rennes University Hospital, I would probably no longer be in this world today”, cowardly moved Alain Le Brun, an 82-year-old Finistère in France. Ouest-France newspaper. If the octogenarian is so grateful to Professor Christophe Leclercq, head of the cardiology and vascular disease department at Rennes University Hospital, it is because the practitioner saved his life by implanting an innovative cardiac device. This one managed to place two wireless cardiac stimulatorsinstead of pacemaker.
Victim of a infarction 15 years ago Alain Le Brun had a classic pacemaker until a serious infection required removal of the device. The infection is such that any reimplantation of a similar pacemaker is made impossible. Prof. Leclerc’s team therefore tested, for the first time in France, a new process designed by the American firm EBR.
Ultrasound to stimulate both ventricles
The operation is carried out successfully without opening the thorax. Cardiologists placed the miscrostimulators at each ventricle. The cardiac micro-stimulators are “harpooned” in each ventricle of the heart, “one in the right, and another in the left”, via an incision in the femoral artery, explained Professor Leclercq to Ouest-France.
Between the ribs, the practitioners implanted a battery connected to an ultrasound transmitter.
This ultrasound is converted into electrical energy by the leadless microstimulators, resulting in coordinated stimulation of both ventricles. This device allowed Alain Le Brun’s heart to beat normally. He is the first patient in France to test this device.
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