Surgical electrode

Abstract

A surgical electrode which can be used as a temporary lead for cardiac pacing or monitoring purposes has two elongated conductors whose distal ends are provided with spaced-apart poles and are implanted in a single operation by means of a surgical needle which is separably secured to the distal end of one of the conductors. The proximal ends of the conductors are connected to an elongated extension which passes through and outwardly from the thorax to be connected to a pacemaker or to an instrument which makes electrocardiograms. The conductors are insulated from each other and that pole which is nearer to the needle is defined by one or more bare strands which have a zig-zag, undulate, helical and/or other shape allowing the strands to reduce the width of the respective pole during penetration into the heart wall. The strands thereupon tend to increase the width of the respective pole to ensure reliable retention of the pole in contact with the surrounding tissue as well as to prevent migration of the pole in the heart wall. The needle is severed from the corresponding conductor when the two poles are properly implanted. The conductor which defines the radially expandible and contractible pole extends through the pole of the other conductor and is clampingly engaged by that portion of the other conductor which defines the respective pole so as to ensure that the pole of the other conductor shares the movement of the expandible pole during implantation into the heart wall.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.