New Device Aims To Improve Life For Those With A Pacemaker

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- New wireless technology is helping patients with heart failure.

It's an electrode that's only nine millimeters -- about the size of the tip of a pen -- and it's designed to help about 30-percent of people with pacemakers who have trouble with their devices.

Seventy-year-old Frances Rodgers has heart failure. She used to get winded just walking up a short flight of stairs.

"I'd stop, take a few breaths, and then, I was all right to go on a bit," Rodgers said.

Her pacemaker was part of the problem. She had three surgeries to replace the leads or wires attached to her 16-year-old device, but her body kept rejecting them.

Standard pacemakers use three leads to send electrical impulses to pace the heart. But for many patients those leads can break, decay, or cause infections.

Doctors in London offered Frances a new "wireless" technology called "Wise" instead of leads.

"Wise" uses a tiny, electrode placed directly inside the heart's left ventricle. A battery and transmitter are also implanted in the chest wall. They all work together with a patient's pacemaker to regulate the heart.

"You are activating the heart in a more normal fashion," said Dr. Aldo Rinaldi. "Usually, the heart is activated electrically from the inside to the outside."

Surgeons use a catheter to insert the tiny electrode into the heart. The procedure only takes about an hour.

It's been almost six months since Frances had her wireless pacemaker implanted.

"I feel so much better," she said.

Right now, the wireless technology is only available in Europe. Testing in the U.S. is expected to begin later this year.