Abstract
A 30-member research team that includes chemists, engineers, and medical doctors has unveiled implantable wireless sensors that biodegrade within the body (Nature 2016, DOI: 10.1038/nature16492). Such sensors could help doctors better monitor brain pressure, which is critical during care for severe head trauma caused by gunshots, car crashes, and other injuries, the team says. Doctors can already monitor brain pressure with implantable sensors that don’t degrade, but the new devices, which disappear after several days, offer several advantages, says team member Rory Murphy of Washington University School of Medicine. “Because they dissolve, we don’t have to go back in and get them,” he explains. “Nobody wants a second surgery.” Furthermore, existing sensors connect to monitors outside the patient using rather bulky wires that can easily become dislodged, Murphy says. Larger wires also present heightened opportunities for infection. Two new sensor platforms—developed by John A. Rogers and his team at the ...
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