Significant Advances In Pacing And Beyond
New Divisions Established

Significant Advances In Pacing And Beyond

The Medtronic Hall mechanical valve features long-lasting manufacturing quality and functional reliability.

In the late 1960s Medtronic had teamed up with Alcatel, a French company, to design a nuclear-powered pacemaker. The first human implant of the device took place in Paris in 1970, ushering in a decade of significant advances in pacing.

Those advances included the introduction, in the early 1970s, of tined leads and screw-in myocardial leads. Tines (soft, pliant projections) at the tip of the lead allowed it to be more securely entrapped in the supporting structures of the heart, resulting in a more stable placement. As its name implies, the screw-in myocardial lead had a unique electrode that simply rotated into the myocardium (the heart muscle); unlike other leads, it did not require a stab wound and sutures for insertion.

Medtronic researchers capitalized on developments in circuitry to begin reducing the size of pacemakers while enhancing and expanding the devices' capabilities. In 1979, their work resulted in the introduction of the Byrel AV sequential pacemaker, which led Medtronic's efforts in physiologic pacing.

Just one year later, Medtronic introduced its first multiprogrammable pacemaker, the Spectrax SX. This pacemaker, which had nine adjustable parameters, had the advantage of noninvasive programmability - in other words, a physician could adjust the pacemaker to meet a patient's needs without performing another implantation operation.

New Divisions Established

By the end of the decade, Medtronic began to make its mark in other medical areas. The Neurological Division was officially established in 1976. Devices such as the Neuromod 3700 (a deep-brain stimulation system designed to relieve chronic pain) and the ESI (an electro-spinal instrumentation product for treating scoliosis) were introduced, and the first Pisces spinal cord stimulation device was implanted (to treat chronic pain in the trunk, arm, and leg).

In 1977 Medtronic established its Heart Valves Division and introduced the Medtronic Hall mechanical heart valve. Named for Dr. Karl Victor Hall, who invented and first implanted it, this prosthetic valve has no welds, joints, or bends that could eventually weaken the valve's structure.

Earl Bakken continued his involvement with the company, serving as chairman of the board. In 1976, Medtronic reached outside for a president and chief executive officer, tapping Dale R. Olseth, a former investment banker and the president and chief executive of Tonka Corporation, for the position. In the same year, Medtronic identified potential technical problems with one of its pacemakers and issued its first major product recall. With increased competition from new medical device companies, Medtronic's market share in the United States dropped from 60 percent to 40 percent.

Internationally, Medtronic remained the worldwide leader with a 35 percent share of the pacemaker market outside the United States. Reflecting that prominence, the company continued to expand its global presence during the decade. The company established a Latin American headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1971 and one year later established its European headquarters in Paris. In addition to starting a direct sales operation in Japan, Medtronic opened manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico, Canada, and France. By the end of the 1970s, total annual sales had surpassed the $200 million mark.