A Battery- and Leadless Heart-Worn Pacemaker Strategy

Over the past half-century, cardiac pacing technology has adhered to one basic system. However, many pacemaker-related complications are related to this system, particularly in terms of the power supply and leads. Here, for the first time a heart-worn pacemaker strategy is presented, which allows batteryless powering and leadless pacing. The batteryless feature is attained via heart-extrusion energy scavenging through a micromachined piezoelectric thick film transducer. A record in vivo output current of 30 mu A is obtained in an adult swine by the implanted piezoelectric transducer, which can effectively drive a commercial cardiac pacemaker. The exocardial pacing method is demonstrated by this batteryless pacemaker functions without a device or leads placed within the cardiac chambers. Lead- or batteryless options are being explored as new basic features of cardiac pacemakers. The presented heart-worn pacemaker strategy may be useful in future pacing technology.