The Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona has implanted the smallest pacemaker in the world, measuring two centimeters, in a 2.1 kilo newborn after detecting a serious cardiac disorder during pregnancy. The health center reported this Wednesday that, after the operation, the little girl has progressed favorably and, after 20 days of hospitalization, she has been discharged.
Conventional pacemakers measure around six centimeters, an excessively large size for a newborn and which can cause complications such as organ compression or infections. Given this limitation, the hospital team worked with the Abbott company to have a synchronized pacemaker based on the AVEIR platform specifically adapted to babies, measuring two centimeters. The tiny pacemaker was implanted hours after the baby’s birth, on February 2, after the serious heart disease had been detected during the pregnancy.
Specifically, during the second trimester of pregnancy, professionals detected that the fetus’s heart was beating too slowly and that it was very dilated due to complete atrioventricular block. It is a serious alteration of the electrical system of the heart that prevents electrical impulses from passing correctly between its chambers. As a result, the heart beats much more slowly than normal (bradycardia), which can cause not enough blood and oxygen to reach the body. Furthermore, to try to compensate for the slow heart rate, the heart increases in size, as occurred in this case.
At the end of January, the specialists at Sant Joan de Déu observed a worsening and decided to bring forward the delivery. The girl was born prematurely on February 2 with only 2.1 kilos of weight and severe bradycardia that caused clinical deterioration, with risk of heart failure. In the first hours of her life, a temporary pacemaker was implanted to stabilize her, but the problem is that conventional devices are too large for such a small newborn. This challenge was solved with the new pacemaker, approximately two centimeters long—the smallest in the world in its category—which allows the heartbeat to be stimulated and coordinated appropriately, something essential in such a small and previously dilated organ, explained the head of the hospital’s Pediatric Cardiology Service, Georgia Sarquella-Brugada.
A few hours after birth, the cardiac surgery team, led by Dr. Stefano Congiu, performed the definitive implantation. 16 professionals from different specialties participated in the intervention, as well as engineers specialized in medical devices. The little girl has progressed favorably and, after 20 days of hospitalization, she has been discharged. According to the doctors, he will be able to lead a normal life and will only have to undergo periodic check-ups in the hospital.
