An artificial cardiac pacemaker is a medical device, nowadays always implanted, that generates electrical pulses delivered by electrodes to one or more of the chambers of the heart, the upper atria or lower ventricles. Each pulse causes the targeted chamber(s) to contract and pump blood, thus regulating the function of the electrical conduction system of the heart.
An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or automated implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD) is a device implantable inside the body, able to perform defibrillation, and depending on the type, cardioversion and pacing of the heart. The ICD is the first-line treatment and prophylactic therapy for patients at risk for sudden cardiac death due to ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia.
Wilson Greatbatch was an American engineer and pioneering inventor. He held more than 325 patents and was a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Lemelson–MIT Prize and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (1990).
Medtronic plc is an American medical device company. The company's operational and executive headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and its legal headquarters are in Ireland due to its acquisition of Irish-based Covidien in 2015. While it primarily operates in the United States, it operates in more than 150 countries and employs over 90,000 people. It develops and manufactures healthcare technologies and therapies.
Boston Scientific Corporation ("BSC"), incorporated in Delaware, is a biomedical/biotechnology engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices used in interventional medical specialties, including interventional radiology, interventional cardiology, peripheral interventions, neuromodulation, neurovascular intervention, electrophysiology, cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, endoscopy, oncology, urology and gynecology. Boston Scientific is widely known for the development of the Taxus Stent, a drug-eluting stent which is used to open clogged arteries. With the full acquisition of Cameron Health in June 2012, the company also became notable for offering a minimally invasive implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) which they call the EMBLEM subcutaneous implantable defibrillator (S-ICD).
The Birmingham Zoo is a zoological park that opened in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
Guidant Corporation, part of Boston Scientific and Abbott Labs, designs and manufactures artificial cardiac pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, stents, and other cardiovascular medical products. Their company headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Their main competitors are Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and Johnson and Johnson.
Willie B. was a western lowland gorilla who lived at the Zoo of Atlanta for 39 years, from 1961 until his death on February 2, 2000. He was named after the former mayor of Atlanta, William Berry Hartsfield. Willie B. was kept in isolation for 27 years with only a television and a tire swing to keep him company. In 1988, he was moved to an outside exhibit and allowed to socialize and raise a family. He then embraced his role as silverback and leader of a troop.
St. Jude Medical, Inc. was an American global medical device company headquartered in Little Canada, Minnesota, U.S., a suburb of Saint Paul. The company had more than 20 principal operations and manufacturing facilities worldwide with products sold in more than 100 countries. Its major markets include the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. The company was named after Jude the Apostle, the patron saint of lost causes.
UAB Hospital is a 1,207 bed tertiary hospital and academic health science center located in Birmingham, Alabama. It serves as the only ACS verified Level I Trauma Center in Alabama, and is the flagship property of the UAB Health System which is owned by the University of Alabama System. The system includes clinics, an eye hospital and affiliations with other health care facilities throughout the state. It is Birmingham's largest employer, with a staff of over 20,000.
Organ replacement in animals is an emerging field in veterinary science, focusing on improving and prolonging the lives of animals through the replacement or augmentation of damaged or dysfunctional organs. Despite its relative rarity compared to limb prosthesis, strides have been made over the decades, with notable milestones such as the first pacemaker surgery on a dog in 1968 and successful kidney transplants in cats since the mid-1980s. This field faces challenges, particularly in canine programs, due to issues related to immunosuppression. Ethical considerations also exist, particularly concerning the treatment of donor animals, underscoring the need for ongoing discussions and regulations in this dynamic field.
Charles the Gorilla is a wild-born western lowland gorilla from Gabon, West Africa. Although the date of his birth is unknown his approximate date of birth is September 23, 1972; it is, however, celebrated on January 19 each year. At a time when humans were less vigilant about their treatment of threatened and endangered species, Charles was sought after by a group of poachers interested in acquiring gorillas for international trade. He is thought to have been found lying next to the corpse of his dead mother.
Adrian Kantrowitz was an American cardiac surgeon whose team performed the world's second heart transplant attempt at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York on December 6, 1967. The infant lived for only six hours. At a press conference afterwards, Kantrowitz emphasized that he considered the operation to have been a failure.
Morton Maimon Mower was an American cardiologist specializing in electrophysiology and the co-inventor of the automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator. He served in several professional capacities at Sinai Hospital and Cardiac Pacemakers Inc. In 1996, he became the chairman and chief executive officer of Mower Research Associates. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002 for the development of the automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator with Michel Mirowski in the 1970s. He continued his research in the biomechanical engineering laboratories at Johns Hopkins University.
Management of heart failure requires a multimodal approach. It involves a combination of lifestyle modifications, medications, and possibly the use of devices or surgery.
Pacemaker failure is the inability of an implanted artificial pacemaker to perform its intended function of regulating the beating of the heart. A pacemaker uses electrical impulses delivered by electrodes in order to contract the heart muscles. Failure of a pacemaker is defined by the requirement of repeat surgical pacemaker-related procedures after the initial implantation. Most implanted pacemakers are dual chambered and have two leads, causing the implantation time to take longer because of this more complicated pacemaker system. These factors can contribute to an increased rate of complications which can lead to pacemaker failure.
Cardiac contractility modulation is a therapy which is intended for the treatment of patients with moderate to severe heart failure with symptoms despite optimal medical therapy who can benefit from an improvement in cardiac output. The short- and long-term use of this therapy enhances the strength of ventricular contraction and therefore the heart's pumping capacity by modulating (adjusting) the myocardial contractility. This is provided by a pacemaker-like device that applies non-excitatory electrical signals adjusted to and synchronized with the electrical action in the cardiac cycle.
Implant failure refers to the failure of any medical implant to meet the claims of its manufacturer or the health care provider involved in its installation. Implant failure can have any number of causes. The rates of failure vary for different implants.
James K. Kirklin is an American cardiac surgeon who has made significant scientific and surgical contributions in the fields of heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support devices to assist the pumping action of the heart. He was formerly Professor of Surgery (1987-2022), Director of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery (2006-2016), Director of the James and John Kirklin Institute for Research in Surgical Outcomes (KIRSO) (2016–2022), and Co-Director of Comprehensive Cardiovascular Center (2011-2017) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). While at UAB, he held the UAB Cardiovascular Research Chair (1998-2006), the John Kirklin Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery (2006-2017), and the James Kirklin Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery (2017-2022).
Fibrosing cardiomyopathy is a disease commonly caused by a heart failure in great apes, most specially the males. When fibrosing cardiomyopathy attacks a healthy heart, it comes with a bacterium or a virus that makes the muscles of the heart turn into fibrous bands which makes them unable to pump blood in the blood streams. When a gorilla is stressed, or the food it eats, then catecholamine which is a harmful substance is released in the heart muscle that make the C-reactive protein that is found in blood plasma produced by the liver to swell, causing rheumatoid arthritis.
