Lithium battery pacemaker

The lithium battery pacemaker transformed cardiac care from a risky intervention requiring repeated surgeries into a reliable, decade-long solution. When Cardiac Pacemakers Inc. began manufacturing pacemakers with lithium-iodide batteries on July 9, 1974, they created the foundation for a technology that would keep millions of hearts beating for years without replacement.

The adjacent possible required solving the battery problem that had plagued cardiac pacing since its invention. Wilson Greatbatch's original 1960 implantable pacemaker used zinc-mercury batteries that lasted only two years—requiring patients to undergo repeated surgeries to replace depleted power sources. Each surgery carried risk of infection and complications. The industry desperately needed longer-lasting power.

Greatbatch had been working on the solution since 1968, when he acquired rights to lithium-iodine battery technology from Catalyst Research Corporation in Baltimore. By 1971, he had developed the chemistry into a compact, sealed package suitable for human implantation. The first patient to receive a Greatbatch-designed lithium pacemaker emerged from surgery in June 1973 at Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Hospital.

Commercial manufacturing began on July 9, 1974, when Manuel A. Villafaña and Anthony Adducci—founders of Cardiac Pacemakers Inc. (CPI) in St. Paul, Minnesota—began producing pacemakers with lithium anodes and lithium-iodide solid-state electrolytes. The solid-state construction eliminated the liquid electrolytes of previous batteries, removing failure modes and allowing hermetic sealing.

The advantages were transformative. Battery life extended from two years to ten or more. The predictable voltage decline allowed physicians to monitor remaining capacity through external telemetry, scheduling replacements before failure rather than after. The titanium cases that housed these batteries were biocompatible and corrosion-resistant, further improving reliability.

Path dependence locked in the technology rapidly. By 1978, lithium-iodide had become the standard chemistry for pacemakers worldwide. The success of implantable lithium batteries enabled more ambitious devices: implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) that could detect and correct dangerous heart rhythms, neurostimulators for chronic pain and movement disorders, and drug pumps for precise medication delivery.

The cascade saved millions of lives. Today, more than 3 million people worldwide have implanted cardiac pacemakers, the vast majority powered by lithium-iodide batteries that remain essentially unchanged from Greatbatch's 1970s design. The chemistry that once seemed revolutionary has become invisible—so reliable that patients forget the device keeping their hearts beating. The lithium battery pacemaker proved that medical devices could be truly implantable: installed once and trusted for a decade.