mortenmhp t1_ir1z4pv wrote on October 4, 2022 at 7:14 PM

Reply to comment by azimir in Georgia doctor implants one of the first wireless, dual chamber pacemakers: New type of pacemaker is safer option than traditional surgery by universityofga

If you are less than 60-70 years old at that point, I'd definitely go for regular pacemaker. If you get one of these, even if they last 10 they don't really pull them out again so instead of having one on your chest replaced, now you get to have 2 inside your heart. Additionally if you already have a pacemaker it makes little sense to just leave it and put a cordless in at the same time. It makes even less sense to open to the pacemaker to remove it for one of these when you could just replace the old one.

azimir t1_ir210qy wrote on October 4, 2022 at 7:26 PM

Welp, I've already got one so I guess it's with me for... ever.

I hope future generations keep seeing the benefits of these advances. I most definitely have!

Vocalscpunk t1_ir3t8s9 wrote on October 5, 2022 at 3:07 AM

Honestly in a few years all these rules might change. The major issue replacing pacemaker now is the wires, if they are usable then hot swapping a new pacemaker in the same variety you have now might make the most sense. If they're not usable then changing over might be a better call.

Sqwrell315 t1_ird45zn wrote on October 7, 2022 at 3:12 AM

My wife just had a Micra AV installed. It fires 3% and she can feel it fire. Do you feel anything??

azimir t1_irdi6l1 wrote on October 7, 2022 at 5:39 AM

I don't know that particular unit. It took me a while to stop noticing that the pacemaker was running. It was a new heart rate for daily life (about 15 bpm higher resting) and it was a weird feeling.

I also had to have some of the settings tweaked a few times. The biggest impact was from the setting which raised the rate when I stood up and started moving. It was on the default which was for a 80 year old in the hospital so it had a very slow response. I'm in my 40's so it needed to react much faster when I would stand and start moving. Once that was tuned somewhat almost all of the poor out of breath feelings when I would stand and move vanished.

As to "feeling it fire" - not directly. It's just my heart beating. The difference is when and how much. I also had a long time worrying about it. I (and my wife) did some therapy to help me understand the changes to myself and to address fears. That helped a ton.

TriggerWarningHappy t1_ir37jnb wrote on October 5, 2022 at 12:15 AM

Reading https://www.cardiovascular.abbott/us/en/hcp/products/cardiac-rhythm-management/pacemakers/aveir-vr-leadless-pacemaker/how-it-works.html they talk a lot about retrieval and claim "The Aveir VR Leadless Pacemaker's predicate device has a chronic retrieval success rate above 80% with helix fixation through 7 years, regardless of implant duration." - that's a little too jargony for me to confidently unpack, but it at least sounds like they'll try to take it out.