Pacemakers are basically implanted into our human bodies in case we have heart problems concerning heart beat and necessarily pace generation in our hearts. The Pacemaker is specialized to generate temporary rhythmic boost to the heart beats to ensure that the heart beats are not too slow or don’t stop. They have literally save lives a thousand and one times world-wide. They are quite expensivebut they are worth every coin.
However, they have always been faced by one serious challenge. Their inbuilt batteries are designed to serve the patient or power the pacemaker for a limited period of approximately 5-11 years after which, they have to be surgically replaced. This surgery can prove to be very fataland dangerous to the patient. They can have several complications in the heart like bleeding and other infections.
Recently, researchers and scientists have come up with a new design and a modern pacemaker which is self-powered. It is perfectly and precisely designed to generate its power from the heartbeats themselves. This makes it more effective and reliable than their older counter-parts.
Previous attempt to make this kind of a pacemaker failedsimply because of its rigid structure and drawbacks with miniaturisation. This time round, they have made a more manageable size, flexible frames and piezoelectric layers which generates energy when bent. This is a good shot for the scientists to curb any known shortcoming, which might prevent 100% effectiveness.
Choosing the pig as their subject to test the device, they were more than glad to find out that they were very successful in their experiment. They choose the pig since its physiology and physical structure is quite alike with that of humans.Therefore, this pacemaker will definitely work in human beings.
The pacemaker is implanted under the skin near the collarbone precisely above the heart. The pacemaker’s battery creates electrical signals that are conveyed to the heart via implanted electrodes.
When the heart beats, the force has the capability of changing the pacemaker’s frame shape hence able to generate enough energy to do a similar job as the battery-powered one.
Scientists says that this is a great jumpstart to making a self-powered cardiac pacemaker.
