Biography

Esteemed, respected and honored, Decio Kormann, born September 2, 1939 in Brusque, Santa Catarina, Brazil, and died January 8, 1998 after a long battle with cancer. He graduated medical school at the University of Parana in Curitiba, Brazil in 1964 and became a surgical resident at the Institute of Cardiology, now named the Dante Pazzanese Institute, in Sao Paulo. While in medical school he became interested in electronics and radio, knowledge invaluable later as he developed cardiac pacemakers. As it was then difficult to purchase medical devices not manufactured in Brazil, his chief, Adib Jatene, urged that he establish an experimental laboratory at the Institute to develop, and then manufacture, a heart-lung machine, renal dialysis equipment and implantable cardiac pacemakers, all for local clinical use. The parts for the pacemaker were purchased from the electronics street market in Sao Paulo, epoxy from a branch of a European firm, and batteries directly from the USA. The first pacemaker was manufactured in 1965 and implanted during February 1966 in a patient with Chagas disease, of which about half the patients soon to be implanted, suffered. He also developed a slow (50 bpm) rate pacemaker as superior for those with Chagas disease. The laboratory manufactured three thousand pacemakers until 1976. As his first love was cardiac pacing, he continued to develop leads and pulse generators, entirely designed in his laboratory and powered by mercury-zinc batteries, for clinical use at the Institute and then more widely in Brazil and South America. Mornings he was a surgical trainee and afternoons and evenings an electronics designer and engineer. Manufacture continued until introduction of the lithium powered pulse generators which required a much more elaborate manufacturing capability than that of his experimental laboratory. Kormann founded the pacemaker division at the Institute in 1967, where more than 120 Brazilian and foreign physicians were eventually trained. He organized the first Latin American Symposium on Cardiac Pacemakers in Sao Paulo and the first Inter-American Symposium on Pacemakers in Rio de Janeiro in 1976 and presented at the World Symposia on Cardiac Pacing in 1979, 1983, 1987, 1991 and 1995, and frequently at NASPE. He was a founder of the Cardiac Stimulation Department of the Brazilian Cardiovascular Society, and the Latin American Society of Cardiac and Electrophysiologic Pacing in 1979, and was its founding President. He was a member of the NASPE Advisory Board from 1989 to 1995 and was a founding member of the PACE Editorial Board from 1979 to 1984 and one of the Editors of the Brazilian and Latin American Journal of Pacemakers and Arrhythmias (REBLAMPA) and the Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery. Following extensive evaluation of electromagnetic interference (EMI) with pacemaker function, he developed a device, the Teleanode, for adapting a bipolar pulse generator to a unipolar lead with reduction of such interference. He developed a valuable technique for pacemaker implantation in children, and was extensively involved in the therapy of tachyarrhythmias. He was forever innovative and creative, with a stream of concepts and techniques introduced into the practice of cardiac pacing.

He inspired a generation of Latin Americans in high technology medicine and cardiac pacing with his original research, development, clinical practice, and teaching and was continually referred to as the “Father of Cardiac Pacing” in Latin America. He is survived by his wife and three children, and fondly and reverentially remembered by a continent of disciples.

Interview Excerpts

Finding manufacturers of pacemaker components (Real Audio)

Using airline pilots as couriers for early pacemakers (Real Audio)

Teaching and manufacturing pacemakers in South America (Real Audio)

Using guitar manufacturer to wind coil for early leads (Real Audio)

Introduction of slow-rate pacing (Real Audio)

Pride in the electrophysiology community in South America (Real Audio)

Development and use of the telenode in avoiding EMI (Real Audio)

Studying EMI (Real Audio)

Following are excerpts from this interview.
Interviewer: Seymour Furman, MD
Date: October 23, 1995
Place: Buenos Aires, Argentina
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