PACEMAKERS.


CHARDACK, WILLIAM; ANDREW GAGE; AND WILSON GREATBATCH. Archive of 11 items on the invention and early clinical application of a permanent pacemaker, including: 1) A transistorized implantable pacemaker for the long-term correction of complete atrioventricular block. 1959. Xerographic copy of an article in NEREM Record INSCRIBED BY GREATBATCH: "1st paper on animal work"; 2) A transistorized, implantable cardiac pacemaker. 1960. Xerographic copy of an offprint from 1960 IRE International Convention Record INSCRIBED BY GREATBATCH: "2nd animal paper"; 3) A transistorized, self-contained, implantable pacemaker for the long-term correction of complete heart block. 1960, Xerographic copy of an offprint from Surgery. INSCRIBED BY GREATBATCH: "1st report on human work"; 4) A transistorized, self-contained, implantable pacemaker for the long-term correction of complete heart block. 1960, pp. 643-654, IN: Surgery (complete issue of October 1960 in the original printed wrappers); 5) Correction of complete heart block by a self-contained and subcutaneously implanted pacemaker: Clinical experience with 15 patients. 1961. Xerographic copy of an article from Surgery. INSCRIBED BY GREATBATCH: "Subsequent clinical work"; 6) Correction of complete heart block by a self-contained and subcutaneously implanted pacemaker: 7) Clinical experience with 15 patients. 1961, pp. 814-830, IN: J. Thoracic Cardiovasc. Surg. (complete issue of December 1961 in original printed wrappers, library stamp on front wrapper, no other institutional markings); 8) W. Chardack, Cardiac pacemakers and heart block. 1969. Offprint; 9) W. Greatbatch, Implantable Active Devices: Commemorating Twenty-Five Years of Pacemaking. [Clarence, NY] 1983. [Twelve separate pamphlets that Greatbatch placed in a blue three ring binder. With a 5 X 7 glossy black and white photograph of Greatbatch holding an example of the pacemaker he invented. INSCRIBED "Author's compliments to Dr. Fye. Wilson Greatbatch. 21 Apr 92"; 10) The Making of the Pacemaker. Amherst NY, 2000, dw, 260pp. SIGNED BY GREATBATCH. First edition; 11) Earl Bakken, One Man's Full Life. Minneapolis 1999, stiff wrappers, 160pp. SIGNED BY BAKKEN. First edition.Wilson Greatbatch, an electrical engineer in Buffalo, developed the first implantable pacemaker that was subsequently commercialized by Medtronic. Greatbatch's two-year collaboration with surgeon William Chardack led to the implantation of a pacemaker in a 77-year-old man on June 6, 1960 (reported in item 4)."The achievement of Chardack and Greatbatch has been recognized then and since as a defining event in the history of cardiac pacemaker implantation" (Jeffrey and Parsonnet, "Cardiac pacing, 1960-1985," Circulation, 1998;97:1978-1991). Pacemaker pioneer Seymour Furman explained, "With the Chardack-Greatbatch implant, and their subsequent agreement with Medtronic for manufacture, the era of implantable pacing began" (Furman, foreword to Greatbatch: The Making of the Pacemaker, see item 10). Medtronic signed an agreement with Chardack and Greatbatch in October 1960. Medtronic co-founder Earl Bakken recalled in 1999, "By the end of the year, as we began production back in Minneapolis, Medtronic had 50 orders for the new device at $375 apiece. Our formal relationship with Chardack and Greatbatch lasted for more than a decade. My fondness and admiration for the two men - bold and brilliant biomedical innovators both - continues to this day" (Bakken One Man's Full Life, p 53).