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Essay On Artificial Pacemaker

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An artificial pacemaker is an implantable electronic device that delivers a controlled, rhythmic electric stimulus to the heart muscle in order regulate the heartbeat. Functionally, a pacemaker comprises at least three parts: a electrical pulse generator, a power source and an electrode system. It is used to treat abnormal heart rhythms called Cardiac dysrhythmia or arrhythmias The development of artificial pacemaker begins with the introduction of the galvanism theory. In 1762, Luigi Galvani became an anatomy lecturer at the University of Bologna. On November 6, 1787, when he was slowly skinning a frog at a table, he accidentally touched the leg of the frog using a pair of metal scalpel. Galvani noticed that the leg was thrown into violent …show more content…

He proved that injured excitable biological tissues generated direct electrical currents. The experiment proved that electricity travels though nerves causing muscular contractions. By 1878, Wilhelm von Ziemssen discovered that the heart accelerates when periodic pulses of current are applied to the chest until its beat coincided with the external stimulus. John Alexander McWilliam then proposed in 1889 that sudden death in human beings is due to the heart beating irregularly or at the wrong rate. In 1899 he published a paper demonstrating his thesis that small, regular electric pulses could treat ventricular fibrillation. Thus, resulting in the first comprehensive approach to successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation Edgar H. Booth and Mark C. Lidwell in Sidney, Australia devised a portable apparatus which could deliver large shocks to the heart at regular intervals in 1926. Later in 1928, they attempted to revive several stillborn infants. One of these infants subsequently recovered, making the Australian baby the first human being to undergo successful heart pacing and Lidwill’s apparatus the first artificial

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