A needle with intelligence
American doctors have presented "smart" needles for precise injections
Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science
Many injections require an accurate hit to a specific tissue or area located somewhere deep in the body or a specific organ. This task requires skill and experience from doctors, but the new "smart needle for targeted injections into tissues" (Intelligent-Injector for Tissue-Targeting, abbreviated i2T2) will allow the procedure to be carried out with jewelry precision and completely safe. The current prototype of the device is described in the article Chitnis et al. A resistance-sensing mechanical injector for the precise delivery of liquids to target tissue, published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Jeffrey Karp's team from the United Medical Center (Brigham and Women's Hospital) in Boston, USA, used standard components for injections – a syringe and a needle – supplementing them with miniature electronic elements. So, as the needle moves deeper, the pressure sensor allows you to accurately determine the type of tissue through which its tip passes, approximately as experienced doctors do, but without requiring long and risky training for patients.
First of all, developers are interested in the use of i2T2 for particularly complex injections into the eye tissue, more precisely, into the perichoroidal space – a narrow slit on the inside of the eyeball, between its vascular membrane and sclera. To deliver the medicine there, the needle must penetrate through the thinnest sclera and immediately stop – this extremely delicate and responsible operation can be automated with the help of new technology. It will also help other medical practitioners: for example, when working in the epidural space of the spine or in the peritoneal cavity.
Bioengineers have already performed all these procedures using i2T2, having tested their prototype on animals. "With the help of small modifications, we have completely transformed ordinary needles, achieving an accurate hit on the target," says one of the authors of the work Girish Chitnis (Girish Chitnis).
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