One inch in length, the coin-sized Micra transcatheter pacing system is only one tenth the size of a traditional cardiac pacemaker. It eliminates potential medical complications arising from wires running from a conventional pacemaker into the heart and reduces the risk in implanting surgery. This advanced micro cardiac pacemaker will make its debut in the country at the first China International Import Expo this November.

This pacemaker was developed by medical equipment provider Medtronic, headquartered in Minneapolis, United States. At the matchmaking for exhibitors and buyers of medical equipment and healthcare products held on August 23, the Medtronic’s China communications director Zhou Zuyi said that the company would bring supplies of minimally invasive surgery, intensive care unit equipment and other medical equipment for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, medical treatments and rehabilitation.

Zhou introduced the micro pacemaker at the matchmaking conference. “A traditional cardiac pacemaker is as big as a tea bag, and needs to be implanted into the patient’s upper breast, but the wire-free pacemaker is like a vitamin capsule — 25.9 millimeters in length, one cubic centimeters in size and two grams in weight — it is 90 percent smaller than traditional ones.”

Zhou said patients of atrial fibrillation and arrhythmia had to undergo surgery to install cardiac pacemakers in the past. The old ones were implanted with electrical wires, while this wire-free pacemaker can be implanted through the femoral artery into the right chamber of the heart to avoid risks in the surgery as well as potential complications caused by large surgical wound.

The pacemaker has been on overseas market for two years but still remains at clinical stage in China.