Why the study?
Do radioisotope-powered cardiac pacemakers provide safe, long-lived power compared to chemical batteries in patients with heart block?
Do radioisotope-powered cardiac pacemakers provide safe, long-lived power compared to chemical batteries in patients with heart block?
Radioisotope-powered pacemakers offer the potential for 10-20 year battery life, but safety concerns regarding fuel capsule integrity remain a barrier to widespread use.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Should not yet change practice; leaves open the viability of radioisotope power sources for future device longevity.
Over 50, 000 implantable cardiac pacemakers are in use to rehabilitate patients with heart block. The chemical batteries powering these pacemakers usually fail within a few years. A variety of nuclear batteries, with the potential of providing long-lived (10 - 20 years) pacemaker power, are under development. This paper reviews the status of this development. Nuclear-powered pacemakers have reached the stage of clinical evaluation. Their cost, although initially high, is not prohibitive. The primary problem inhibiting widespread application is the maintenance of fuel capsule integrity under all creditable conditions.
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Huffman et al. (1974) studied this question.
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