The Development of the Pacemaker

Never Quite There: a tale of Resuscitation Medicine

“…We still had to wait until 1952 for external pacing to be accepted 26 -though the first commercial units were produced in 1950 to the design of Bigelow, Callaghan, and Hopps 27,28 -and until early 1959 for intracardiac pacing. 29 We were almost there 80 years earlier, so why did we forget?…”

The Early History of Cardiac Pacing

“…Initially, a laboratory Grass (Quincy, MA, USA) physiological stimulator was used, but eventually an engineer, John A. Hopps of the National Research Council of Canada, who had been assigned to develop cooling and rewarming equipment for the hypothermia experiments, developed a cardiac stimulator for laboratory use 17,18 . He then invented a catheter electrode 19 to be introduced via the dog's external jugular vein for sinoatrial node pacing which was used in animals 20 and clinically during cardiac repair and also in several (probably five) patients who had suddenly collapsed, possibly as a result of acute myocardial infarction, perhaps with AV block. As only the sinoatrial region was paced, never the right ventricle, that effort failed, was abandoned, and was not formally reported 21 .…”

Leadless Cardiac Pacemakers: Where are we?

“…Alat pacu jantung pertama tersebut terletak di luar tubuh dengan kabel penghantar yang dimasukan ke dinding dada menuju jantung. 3 Prosedur ini sangat menyakitkan pasien pada saat itu dan dapat mencetuskan terjadinya fibrilasi ventrikel.…”