Edited by
Fred M. Kusumoto
and
Nora F. Goldschlager

2008

As early as the late 1700s, Physicians speculated that electrical current could be used to stimulate the heart. In 1882, von Ziemssen used electrical current to directly stimulate the heart of a woman whose anterior chest wall had been removed after resection of a chest tumor. In 1952, Zoll used transthoracic current to pace the heart, and in 1958 the first implantable pacemaker was placed by Ake Senning and Rune Elmquist.