Embedded Medical Devices: Pressure Volume Loops in Rodents

Man has been instrumenting the human body with electrical devices since the early 1800s. McWilliam built an electrical stimulator of the heart in 1889. In the 1930s, Hyman built and patented multiple versions of an artificial pacemaker. The first one was operated by a hand crank and spring motor to generate and supply the electricity. Around 1960, battery powered pacemakers arrived on the scene. There are five companies that currently provide pacemakers: Biotronik, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and Sorin. Hearing aids, glucose monitors, artificial joints and limbs, and biopotentials monitors are additional devices that can be implanted.