Assessing Tissue Damage Around a Tape Spring Steerable Needle With Sharp Turn Radii.

Steerable needles are a novel technology that offers a wide range of uses in medical diagnostics and therapeutics. Currently, there exist several steerable needle designs in the literature, however, they are limited in their use by the number of possible turns, turn radius, and tissue damage. We introduce a novel design of a tape spring steerable needle, capable of multiple turns, that minimizes tissue damage.

Simple implantable wireless sensor platform to measure pressure and force.

Smart implants have the potential to enable personalized care regimens for patients. However, the integration of smart implants into daily clinical practice is limited by the size and cost of available sensing technology. Passive resonant sensors are an attractive alternative to traditional sensing technologies because they obviate the need for on-sensor signal conditioning or telemetry and are substantially simpler, smaller, less expensive, and more robust than other sensing methods.

Reducing the effect of parasitic capacitance on implantable passive resonant sensors.

Passive, LC resonators have the potential to serve as small, robust, low cost, implantable sensors to wirelessly monitor implants following orthopedic surgery. One significant barrier to using LC sensors is the influence on the sensor's resonance of the surrounding conductive high permittivity media in vivo. The surrounding media can detune the resonant frequency of the LC sensor resulting in a bias.