A pacemaker is a device that regulates a normal heart rhythm using electrical impulses. These electrical impulses are delivered by electrodes to contract the heart muscles. But how did we understand the uses of electrotherapies? It all started with the experiment of Luigi Galvani in the 18th century who observed the movement of the dissected muscles of a frog under the effect of electrical sparks. From this experiment it was evident that since the heart is a muscle, these electrical sparks could also be applied to it and replace percussive stimulation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get the original essay Experiments began in 1788 in an attempt to control irregular heartbeats with electric shocks. It was not until 1872 that T. Greene declared that electric shock had the possibility of restarting a stopped heart. A few years later, Wilhelm von Ziemssen made an important discovery. He discovered that controlled pulses of direct current could accelerate the heart until they matched the pulses. In 1899, Alexander McWilliam published his experiments that a regular heartbeat could exist via the application of regular pulses. It is on this basis and on this principle that the pacemaker we know today was built. The hymanotor has been created. An electromechanical instrument developed by Albert Salisbury Hyman – a New York cardiologist – in 1932, the hymanotor was powered by a spring-loaded crank motor that delivered a regular pulse to the right atrial area of ​​the sinus node via a needle. Hyman was the first to coin the term “artificial pacemaker.” Hyman's pacemaker was not successful because the manufacturers were not interested in it and the medical establishment at the time did not approve of inserting the needle into the heart due to the difficulties and potential dangers. In 1950, cardiothoracic surgeons from the University of Toronto and Toronto General Hospital worked with John A. Hopps – an engineer from the National Research Council of Canada – to improve Hyman's design. Soon after, they developed an AC-powered device using a vacuum tube that stimulated the heart from outside the body. In 1952, Paul Maurice Zoll – a cardiologist from Boston – improved the pacemaker and kept a man in recurrent cardiac arrest for 52 hours via external stimulation. The main problem with these later designs was that they were very large and the patient had to be restrained in order to use them. Additionally, the mains power design meant that the patient had to be plugged into the wall. Seymour Furman solved one of the problems in 1959 by using a wire passed through a vein to connect the pacemaker to the right ventricle instead of using a needle. This allowed the heart to continue beating during surgery and is known as transvenous pacing. Around the same time, Earl E. Bakken developed the first portable, battery-powered, transistorized pacemaker, known as the Medtronic 5800 pacemaker. His pacemaker marked the beginning of freeing patients from their cords power supply and paved the way for proving the safety and effectiveness of pacemaker in the medical field. Medtronic has become the industry leader in external pacemakers after establishing itself as a medical device manufacturer. The next challenge was making the pacemaker implantable./10.1097/00000441-200601000-00005