First-of-its-kind pacemaker featured at Piedmont Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – A breakthrough in healthcare at Piedmont Augusta, as they’ve brought a new device to the hospital that is the first of its kind, and it’s the only place you’ll find it in our area.

It might look small, but Dr. Santosh Varkey says this device is a big deal to him and his team.

“Our goal here at our lab is to be able to provide every commercially available service right here in the Augusta region,” said Dr. Varkey.

Piedmont Augusta is now the CSRA’s only hospital to have AVEIR, the world’s first dual chamber leadless pacemaker system, which treats patients with slow or abnormal heart rhythms.

“The idea behind it is that it can act as a pacemaker that can pace both the top and bottom chambers of the heart–without having any leads or wires, or separate battery pack.”

It’s an improvement from the previous treatment–a 50-year-old pacemaker system that had to be implanted surgically to be effective. Though it has worked for years, Varkey says there are disadvantages.

“One is that it has to be implanted with a surgical incision, that’s prone to infection. Then, the leads that have to be in the blood vessel–down into the heart over time for 20, 30, 40 years– they can break. Once they’ve been in the blood vessel for that long, they stick to the blood vessels and stick to the walls of the heart, so they’re difficult to remove.”

The FDA approved the new device just a year ago, but it’s only been brought to hospitals in major cities. Varkey says now that it’s here, it’s a major step forward for healthcare in the CSRA.

“There’s not a lot of full-service hospitals between Charlotte, Augusta, Savannah, Charleston, Jacksonville. If you have to travel long distances to a major city to get a particular technology, then people that would benefit from the technology simply won’t be able to get it. That’s our goal, is to provide all the advanced technology, anything that’s commercially available right here in our hospital.”

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