title: Aubrey Leatham and the introduction of cardiac pacing to the UK.
abstract: In the early 1950s, Dr Aubrey Leatham established a cardiac unit at St. George's Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, London. He developed and taught the essential clinical skill of cardiac auscultation. Under his guidance a clinical department for the care of cardiac patients was developed and coupled to physiological academic research. He was a pioneer in cardiac pacing and, in 1961, Harold Siddons, O'Neal Humphries, and Aubrey Leatham implanted the first 'indwelling' pacemaker in the UK in a 65-year-old man with repeated Stokes-Adams attacks due to complete heart block. The nickel-cadmium 'accumulator', which powered the pacemaker, had to be recharged once a week.
authors.affiliation: British Heart Foundation Professor of Clinical Cardiology, St George's Hospital and University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE, UK. jcamm@sgul.ac.uk
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: John Camm
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Gammage
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rowland
mesh_terms: D000219:Adams-Stokes Syndrome / Q000266:history* / Q000628:therapy; D000368:Aged; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial / Q000266:history*; D002309:Cardiology / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D006326:Heart Auscultation / Q000266:history; D006327:Heart Block / Q000266:history* / Q000628:therapy; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D006113:United Kingdom