Affiliation:
1. Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire, UK
Abstract
This article examines the history of the development of nuclear-powered implanted cardiac pacemakers. The reasons why these devices were regarded as necessary and what advantages they were thought to bring are discussed, along with the safety issues of implanting plutonium-fuelled units into cardiac patients that eventually brought the practice to an end. The article concludes by examining the possible return of this type of technology to meet modern priorities and problems. Contemporary accounts from the designers and clinicians of the atom-powered pacemakers, who to this day defend the devices that were inserted, will be examined, along with the work of historians of medicine.