KarunaNews Story

A biodegradable, injectable pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice that dissolves in the body once its job is done could revolutionize short-term heart care, especially for newborns and patients recovering from surgery. Igor Efimov, professor of biomedical engineering and cardiology at Northwestern University, and his team first developed a dissolvable pacemaker in 2021. That version, about the size of a quarter, performed well in animals but was still too large for newborns with congenital heart defects. The team shrank the device so it can be delivered using a syringe through an incision less than three millimeters wide. It harnesses body fluids to produce enough electrical current to stimulate the heart and then dissolves. In lab tests, the system proved effective across a range of animal models and even in human donor hearts. The next steps include further clinical testing, with hopes that this new generation of pacemakers will not only make procedures safer but also expand cardiac care to some of the most delicate patients.