Innovative Treatment for Hydrocephalus Using Medical Millirobots

New research has proposed the use of medical millirobots to treat Hydrocephalus, an accumulation of fluid in the skull that can cause chronic mental disabilities.

Aaron T. Becker, engineering professor, UH Cullen College of Engineering (Houston, TX, USA), collaborated with other researchers to present the research study on the treatment of Hydrocephalus using millirobots powered by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), using a Gauss Gun. Currently, treatments for Hydrocephalus patients consist of brain surgery, pressure-relieving shunts.

The researchers used an MRI scanner to map routes to problem sites identified in high-quality brain images. The researchers then used the magnetic field of the MRI, and a Gauss gun to deliver small maneuverable robots and deliver medical interventions.

Becker, said, “Hydrocephalus, among other conditions, is a candidate for correction by our millirobots because the ventricles are fluid-filled and connect to the spinal canal. Our noninvasive approach would eventually require simply a hypodermic needle or lumbar puncture to introduce the components into the spinal canal, and the components could be steered out of the body afterwards. The work is still conceptual, but we have demonstrated the procedure working on plastic, fluid-filled containers, or phantoms, inside an unmodified clinical MRI scanner. The benefit of our research is that we can now create clinically relevant forces inside a standard MRI scanner, using just the MRI magnetic field.”

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