Page 38 - 2019 Annual Report

Past and Present
The University of Minnesota has a long history with pacemakers.
In the early days of open-heart surgery, the resulting complications could be deadly. Sutures used to repair holes in hearts could also disrupt the stimulus that makes the heart beat rhythmically—a condition known as heart block.
In 1957, the renowned surgeon C. Walton Lillehei, MD, PhD, and
his team were the first to successfully implant an electrode on the muscle tissue of the heart that could provide a low voltage charge to stimulate and regulate the heart’s contractions, thereby avoiding heart block. Initially the voltage was provided by a large machine,―a pacemaker,―that had to be plugged in and stay plugged in all the time. This was extremely difficult to manage, and even wheeling a patient down the hall was a major endeavor.
Fortunately, Dr. Lillehei crossed paths with Earl E. Bakken, a young electrical engineer who repaired and maintained medical equipment around the hospital. Dr. Lillehei asked Bakken to help create a pacemaker that didn’t rely on wall sockets and very long extension cords. Bakken went back to the workshop of his fledgling company, Medtronic, and shortly after, delivered exactly what was needed: the world’s first portable, battery-powered pacemaker—a device that would go on to save thousands of lives and be the basis of Minnesota’s medical device industry.
Continuing a Legacy
M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital is the first pediatric hospital in the country to implant Medtronic’s wireless MicraTM pacemaker in a pediatric patient via a neck vein.
1957
FIRST MYOCARDIAL WIRE IMPLANTED DIRECTLY INTO THE MUSCLE AND CONNECTED TO EXTERNAL PACEMAKER BY C. WALTON LILLEHEI, MD, AND HIS TEAM.
November
Sixth annual Dean’s Distinguished Research Lectureship honors Melissa Geller, MD, MS, and David Masopust, PhD. Wall of Scholarship adds Robert Foley, MD, Do-Hyung Kim, PhD, Kelvin Lim, MD, and Charles Ryan, MD, for publications receiving over 1,000 citations.
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