Apollo Hospitals Navi Mumbai has achieved a significant milestone in the use of wireless, or leadless, pacemaker technology, underscoring both the growing adoption of next-generation pacing systems and the hospital’s commitment to advanced cardiac interventions for appropriately selected patients. As India’s population ages and cardiovascular disease becomes more common, cardiologists are seeing a steady rise in cases of symptomatic bradycardia, a condition in which the heart beats too slowly to adequately meet the body’s demands; while conventional pacemakers have been the standard of care for decades, new advances in heart rhythm management are making treatment safer, less invasive and more patient-friendly through leadless devices.
Unlike traditional pacemakers, which require a surgical pocket under the skin and insulated leads threaded through veins into the heart, a leadless pacemaker is a miniature, self-contained device implanted directly inside the heart via a catheter passed through a small puncture in the vein near the groin. Roughly 90–93 per cent smaller than conventional systems, these devices eliminate the need for chest incisions, visible device pockets and pacing leads, components that account for many long-term complications associated with standard pacemakers, including lead fracture, displacement, venous obstruction and pocket infections. Although India does not yet have a national registry for symptomatic bradycardia, clinicians report a growing burden of the condition driven by an ageing population, improved survival after heart attacks, higher rates of hypertension, diabetes and coronary artery disease, and wider access to electrocardiography, Holter monitoring and specialised electrophysiology services that enable earlier diagnosis.
Symptomatic bradycardia may result from age-related degeneration of the heart’s electrical conduction system, prior myocardial infarction or certain medications, and patients typically present with fatigue, dizziness, breathlessness on exertion, fainting spells or unexplained falls; if left untreated, severe bradycardia can increase the risk of injury, heart failure and, in some cases, sudden cardiac death. Permanent pacemaker implantation remains the definitive treatment, but advances in device design are now reshaping how pacing therapy is delivered in suitable patients, allowing clinicians to tailor interventions more precisely to individual risk profiles and anatomical considerations.
Commenting on the evolution of heart rhythm management, Dr Sanjeevkumar Kalkekar, Senior Consultant – Interventional Cardiology at Apollo Hospitals Navi Mumbai and National Proctor for Leadless Pacemaker Technology in India, who has performed more than 110 leadless pacemaker implantations across the country, said: “Pacemakers have saved countless lives for more than half a century. What has changed today is not the need for pacing, but how we deliver it. Leadless pacemakers allow us to offer the same life-saving therapy while avoiding many of the challenges associated with conventional leads and surgical pockets. For appropriately selected patients, this translates into a lower risk of infection, fewer device-related complications, faster recovery, and greater comfort after the procedure.”
Because leadless pacemakers remove transvenous leads, they substantially reduce the risk of lead-related mechanical problems and infections, and modern systems are MRI compatible, have an expected battery life of around 12 to 18 years, and typically allow patients to return home within a day of implantation with minimal restrictions on normal activities. The technology is proving especially valuable for patients at higher risk of infection, such as those on long-term dialysis, individuals with previous pacemaker infections, those with limited venous access and elderly or medically frail patients for whom limiting procedural risk is crucial. Apollo Hospitals Navi Mumbai says it remains focused on bringing the latest evidence-based innovations in heart rhythm management to patients, ensuring that disorders like symptomatic bradycardia are treated not only effectively but also with greater safety, comfort and confidence.
