Empower

Leadless pacemakers are moving beyond a niche alternative for selected patients. Abbott’s AVEIR DR can pace both the right atrium and right ventricle using two communicating intracardiac devices, while Medtronic is extending battery life and Boston Scientific is developing a wireless pacemaker-defibrillator system. The technology removes the chest pocket and transvenous leads that create important complications in conventional pacing, but retrieval, long-term device accumulation, patient selection and the limits of current pacing modes still stand between leadless systems and wholesale replacement of traditional pacemakers.