Celebrating 50 years of the lithium power source for cardiac pacemakers

In 1958, Rune Elmqvist and Åke Senning in Stockholm, Sweden, developed the first implantable cardiac pacemaker using a rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery. 1 Elmqvist R. Senning A. Implantable pacemaker for the heart. In Smyth CN, ed. Medical Electronics: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Medical Electronics; June 24-27, 1959. Iliffe and Sons, Paris, France1960 Google Scholar At the same time, Wilson Greatbatch in Buffalo, New York, was working on a fully implantable cardiac pacemaker using a mercury-zinc battery. 1 Elmqvist R. Senning A. Implantable pacemaker for the heart. In Smyth CN, ed. Medical Electronics: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Medical Electronics; June 24-27, 1959. Iliffe and Sons, Paris, France1960 Google Scholar For the next 15 years, the mercury-zinc battery became the most popular power source for cardiac pacemakers. However, because of unpredictable failure characteristics and short service life, it became imperative to investigate other power sources, which included several radioisotopes and once again a rechargeable nickel-cadmium cell. 2 Mond H.G. Freitag G. The cardiac implantable electronic device power source: evolution and revolution. Pacing Clin Electrophysiol. 2014; 37: 1728-1745 Crossref PubMed Scopus (30) Google Scholar However, neither of these power sources were successful long term.