Trident heart specialist first in Carolinas to implant new type of pacemaker
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A doctor at one Lowcountry hospital became the first heart specialist in the Carolinas to implant a new type of leadless pacemaker this week.
Electrophysiologist Darren Sidney, MD, with Trident Medical Center, operated on a 75-year-old woman who received the single-chamber, atrial-only leadless pacemaker on Friday. Hospital officials said she recovered well from the 30-minute procedure.
“The benefits of this device is there’s no wound care. There are no incisions. There’s no scar. There’s a low infection risk. And, there’s virtually no maintenance for this device,” Sidney said.
Hospital officials said the patient was a cancer survivor who had a bilateral mastectomy and wasn’t a candidate for a traditional pacemaker. The new single-chamber, atrial-only leadless pacemaker allowed Sidney to treat her heart condition.
Other benefits include less risk of complication after the device is implanted which gives more patients the option of getting a pacemaker, and most people who receive the device will be able to return home the same day, Trident Medical Center spokesman Rod Whiting said in a release.
Nearly 200,000 pacemakers are implanted each year in the United States. The device regulates patients’ heartbeats to make sure it’s not beating too fast or too slow.
This is the second time in two weeks that the medical center was the site of a first-in-the-Carolinas heart procedure, Whiting said.
On Feb. 19, another electrophysiologist at Trident, Dr. Frank Cuoco was one of the first doctors in North and South Carolina to perform a revised version of pulsed-field ablation, often used to treat atrial fibrillation.
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