St. Cloud Hospital Successfully Implants World’s Smallest Pacemaker

ST. CLOUD -- St. Cloud Hospital has successfully implanted its first Medtronic Micra Transcatheter Pacing System.

It's the world's smallest pacemaker comparable to the size of a large vitamin. The miniature pacemaker is about one-tenth of the size of the old model. The hospital used this technology as part of a global clinical trial.

The new TPS technology does not use wires to connect to the heart. Rather, it uses an electrode at the end of the device to send electrical impulses to the heart.

Surgery complications have been eliminated because the new device is not embedded through a surgical incision. Its implanted into the heart through a catheter that's delivered through the femoral vein.

John Schoenhard is an Electrophysiologist with CentraCare. He says if the clinical trial shows positive results the new technology will help more than a million people who use pacemakers each year.