Application prospect of nanomaterials mediated magnetic technology in the diagnosis and treatment of surgical diseases

Abstract

As an important part of modern medical science, surgery is a discipline, focused mainly on the treatment of trauma, infection, tumor, malformation and dysfunction. Excision and repair are the main surgical treatment method. Therefore, the predictive diagnose and evaluation, the proper selection of operation ways and the absolute exposure of the operating area are crucial in the surgical operation. However, due to the special physiological structure of some tissues and organs, traditional surgical operation cannot treat some disease effectively. Novel surgical techniques are in urgent need now. With the development of surgical technology, the surgical operating area is greatly increased. Many refractory diseases can be treated effectively with the new technology now. Among these new surgical techniques, nanomaterials and nanotechnology, developing rapidly and playing an increasingly important role, provide novel tools and methods for surgery. According to the needs of clinical application, materials scientists have designed and developed all kinds of nanomaterials with special functions and structure. These functions are difficult for traditional materials to achieve. These novel nanomaterials have been applied in many field of the diagnose and treatment of surgical diseases, including the accurate diagnose of surgical lesions, treatment of tissue infection, fast haemostasis, bone reconstruction, repair of decayed teeth, treatment of tumor and pain etc. Among these nanomaterials, magnetic nanomaterials, with unique magnetic properties, specific biological effects, therapeutic functions and the ability of remote control through non-contact magnetic field, show great potential in the biomedical application and surgical application. This feature article mainly focused on the application prospect of nanomaterials mediated magnetic technology in the diagnosis and treatment of surgical diseases. The following sections were included in this feature article: Overview of medical magnetic nanomaterials; advances in nanomaterials mediated magnetic technology in the diagnosis of surgical diseases; advances in nanomaterials mediated magnetic technology in the treatment of surgical diseases. Magnetic nanomaterials used in clinical application mainly include hard magnetic materials (NdFeB materials, representatively) and soft magnetic materials (iron oxide nanomaterials and their compounds, representatively). NdFeB materials, based on their magnetic force or magnetic field, are used mainly as medical devices or for magnetic therapy; iron oxide nanomaterials, as the only inorganic nanomaterials approved by FDA, are widely used in clinical application as contrast agent, new iron-enriched agent and heat source for tumor thermal therapy. Based on iron oxide nanomaterials, there are more than 10 products in different clinical stages and many commercial products have been launched. However, there are still lots of problems during the use of magnetic nanomaterials. Lack of magnetic force, metabolism of the materials in human body, biocompatibility, toxicity, material design and synthesis, are the mainly aspects limiting the application of magnetic materials. With the development of nanotechnology, in the future, we should firstly further investigate the synthesis of medical magnetic nanomaterials of high performance and expand the clinical applicability in surgery. What’s more, the new clinical magnetic nanodrugs, nanodevices and novel contrast agent should be developed for surgery. Meanwhile, the biological effects of magnetic nanomaterials in the presence of magnetic field should be explored deeply. Recent years, more and more engineering scientists are cooperate with clinician, more and more techniques and strategies based on magnetic nanomaterials are tested for diagnosis and treatment in surgical application. We believe that the magnetic nanomaterials hold great promise for future surgical applications.