Abbott’s AVEIR™ Dual Chamber (DR) Leadless Pacemaker System is the world’s first dual chamber leadless pacemaker to treat people with slow or abnormal heart rhythms. With nearly 80% of people who receive a pacemaker needing a dual chamber option to pace both chambers of the heart, AVEIR DR significantly increases access to leadless pacing for millions of people across the U.S.

For 50 years, pacemaker technology has remained rather unchanged, as seamless synchronization of two leadless pacemakers has been a significant technological challenge. Abbott’s AVEIR DR is an engineering feat that solves this challenge and revolutionizes care for people with slow or abnormal heart rhythms. AVEIR DR has four game-changing features: communication technology, leadless design, small device size, and a fixation design.

Through novel i2i™ (implant-to-implant) technology, AVEIR DR delivers beat-to-beat communication between two leadless pacemakers on every heartbeat, eliminating the need for wires and solving a major medical challenge. AVEIR DR utilizes short packets of high-frequency electrical impulses to relay messages between co-implanted leadless pacemakers via the naturally conductive characteristics of the body’s blood and tissue. This conductive communication modality is critical because it uses far less battery current than inductive, radio frequency or Bluetooth® communication, which are alternative forms of communication used in implantable medical devices.

A traditional pacemaker runs wires called cardiac leads through the chest and into the heart from a pulse generator implanted near the collarbone. While traditional pacemakers are effective for millions of people, some experience complications attributed to the pocket or the leads.

On the other hand, leadless pacemakers are implanted directly into two chambers of the heart through a minimally invasive catheter-based procedure and eliminate the need for cardiac leads. Leadless pacing reduces pocket and lead-related complications and offers a less restrictive recovery period due to the minimally invasive implant procedure. Abbott’s AVEIR DR effectively eradicates these complications and eliminates arm movement restrictions.

AVEIR DR is designed to provide the same therapy as a traditional dual chamber pacemaker, but it’s roughly one-tenth the size. AVEIR DR is shorter, smaller, and slimmer than a AAA battery and is implanted directly inside the heart, meaning the device is not visible, there is no scarring, and it offers a quicker recovery period allowing people to get back to their day-to-day lives faster.

With a unique helix-based fixation design, AVEIR DR is engineered to be retrievable should a person’s therapy needs evolve or the device needs to be replaced in the future. The active fixation helix uses a screw-in mechanism to enable both secure implantation and chronic retrieval. The helix design enables AVEIR DR to provide real-time mapping capabilities to measure electrical signals within the heart, helping physicians assess accurate device placement and reposition the device, if necessary, before implantation, further enhancing physicians’ real-time decision-making.

The FDA approved AVEIR DR – deeming it safe and effective – on June 29, 2023, making it available for domestic commercial use. It has since been implanted in people across the country.

Category:MedicalYear:2024Designers:Bernhard Arnar, Matthew Fishler, Keith Victorine, Mehdi Asgharzadeh, Tarini Samanta, Teri Buseman, Abbott Laboratories, Santa Clara, California, USAManufacturer:Abbott Laboratories, Sylmar, California, USA