Orestes Fiandra (August 4, 1921 in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

– April 22, 2011 in Montevideo, Uruguay), was a professor and researcher in medicine and

cardiology Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart d ...

in Uruguay. In 1960 he implanted a

pacemaker An artificial cardiac pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, so as not to be confused with the natural cardiac pacemaker) or pacemaker is a medical device that generates electrical impulses delivered by electrodes to the chambers of the heart eith ...

provided by Rune Elmqvist from the

Karolinska Institute The Karolinska Institute (KI; sv, Karolinska Institutet; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden. The Karolinska Institute is consist ...

of Sweden. This was the first successful pacemaker implant in America. In 1969, he founded the company "Centro de Construcción de Cardioestimuladores" (CCC), which was recently acquired by Greatbatch.

Biography

Dr. Fiandra graduated as doctor in cardiology from the Facultad de Medicina (Universidad de la República) of the Uruguayan

Universidad de la República The University of the Republic ( es, Universidad de la República, sometimes ''UdelaR'') is Uruguay's oldest public university. It is by far the country's largest university, as well as the second largest public university in South America and t ...

. During 1954 and 1955, he stayed in Sweden to work as an intern in the Karolinska Institute. During this stay in Stockholm he met Rune Elmqvist, who worked with external pacemakers to treat atrial-ventricular blocks. Fiandra suggested Elmqvist using germanium transistor technology and e epoxy resin to develop an implantable pacemaker, allowing patients a greater mobility, but at that time Elmqvist had doubts about the safety of such a device. On February 3, 1960, together with surgeon Roberto Rubio, he successfully implanted a pacemaker built by the

Rune Elmqvist Rune Elmqvist (1906–1996) developed the first implantable Artificial pacemaker, pacemaker in 1958, working under the direction of Åke Senning, senior physician and Heart, cardiac Surgery, surgeon at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna M ...

team. The implant was conducted on a young patient who suffered from atrial-ventricular blocks, and persistent cardiac strokes. The procedure, which was carried on in the CASMU 1 hospital in Montevideo, was the first of its kind in America. Fiandra was one of the founders of the Instituto Nacional de Cirugía Cardíaca (1965) which now takes his name. In 1969 he founded the company "Centro de Construcción de Cardioestimuladores", which manufactured pacemakers until the year 2010. He worked as a professor in cardiology in the Facultad de Medicina of the Uruguayan Universidad de la República, and as the director of the cardiology department of the Clínicas hospital in Montevideo. He was an academic in the Academia Nacional de Medicina (Uruguay), member of the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wit ...

(EUA), president of the Instituto Nacional de Cirugía Cardíaca (Uruguay) and president of the Comisión Honoraria para la Salud Cardiovascular (Uruguay). He has published over 180 scientific papers and 5 medicine books. He has registered three patents: "Electrodo de autofijación”, "Electrodo para estimulación eléctrica de tejidos vivos" and “Corazón artificial implantable".

Some of Fiandra's work

• “Marcapasos cardíacos”, Fiandra O. Ed. Estudios Gráficos de CBA srl. Montevideo, 1971. • “Electrocardiografía”, Fiandra O. Ed. Oficina del Libro - AEM. Montevideo, 1972. • “Marcapasos Cardíacos”, Fiandra O., Espasandín W., Fiandra H.A., Erramún B., Fiandra D.O., Fernández Barbieri F., Fernández Banizi P., Greatbatch W., Barreraas F., Feldman S., Yahini J., Neufeld H., Suárez Antola R. Ed. Departamento de Cardiología del Hospital de Clínicas e Instituto Nacional de Cirugía Cardíaca. Montevideo, 1975. • “El electrocardiograma en la cardiopatía isquémica aguda” Fiandra, O., Espasandín, W., Fiandra, H.A., Mussetti, J., Finadra, D., Firstz, A., Pardiñas, C. Ed. AEM Montevideo, 2007. • “Electrocardiografía 2ed.”, imprenta AEM, editado a solicitud de los estudiantes de medicina, 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiandra, Orestes 1921 births 2011 deaths University of the Republic (Uruguay) alumni Uruguayan cardiologists Uruguayan inventors