Abstract
As robotic tools are becoming a fundamental part of present day surgical interventions, microrobotic surgery is steadily approaching clinically-relevant scenarios. In particular, minimally invasive microrobotic targeted drug deliveries are reaching the grasp of the current state-of-the-art technology. However, clinically-relevant issues, such as lack of biocompatibility and dexterity, complicate the clinical application of the results obtained in controlled environments. Consequently, in this work we present a proof-of-concept fully contactless and biocompatible approach for active targeted delivery of a drug-model. In order to achieve full biocompatiblity and contacless actuation, magnetic fields are used for motion control, ultrasound is used for imaging, and induction heating is used for active drug-model release. The presented system is validated in a three-dimensional phantom of human vessels, performing ten trials that mimic targeted drug delivery using a drug-coated microrobot. The system is capable of closed-loop motion control with average velocity and positioning error of 0.3 mm/s and 0.4 mm, respectively. Overall, our findings suggest that the presented approach could augment the current capabilities of microrobotic tools, helping the development of clinically-relevant approaches for active in-vivo targeted drug delivery.
Highlights
Considered a figment of imagination until a few decades ago, microbotic surgeries are steadily approaching clinically-relevant scenarios [1,2]
We present a fully biocompatible approach for microrobotic targeted drug delivery that addresses these challenges
In this approach the ultrasound transducer is swept along the height of the workspace, while a Region Of Interest (ROI) in the surrounding of the estimated position of the microrobot is scanned for 2D detection (Figures 3 and 4)
Summary
Considered a figment of imagination until a few decades ago, microbotic surgeries are steadily approaching clinically-relevant scenarios [1,2]. Drug-coated microrobots, capable of navigating in unpredictable environments, would be able to perform targeted drug delivery inside the human body. We present a fully biocompatible approach for microrobotic targeted drug delivery that addresses these challenges Such approach exploits the physical properties of the used microrobot to develop a contactless actuation and sensing system that would only affect the targeted tissue. Medical ultrasound imaging is used for position sensing, while quasi-static and high-frequency magnetic fields are used for navigation and active drug release, respectively This approach is validated using an anatomically accurate phantom of the human vascular network. Overall, this proof-of-concept work presents the first closed-loop active targeted drug-model delivery using a thermoresponsive coating and a fully biocompatible microrobotic system. Our results show reductions of several orders of magnitude in completion time of the task with respect to previous literature using similar technology [15]
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