Imagine an electronic device that releases the drug in the area where it is needed, measure your vital signs, treats a surgical wound and once done it has done its job it melts away ... All this without leaving a trace, as if it had never been in the body. A new class of devices grouped under the name of "transient electronics" is about to start a medical revolution. The first step was just taken by a group of engineers at Tufts University, in the United States, who successfully tested one of these biodegradable devices. The experiment was done with mice that were implanted with a device designed to deliver drugs and treat an infection. Not only did the treatment work, but also it barely left remmants of its presence in the organism three weeks later. With only a few tens of nanometers thick, the new circuits are easily dissolved in either water or other body fluids without causing damage.
In the same line, Abbot lab has recently introduced a new "stent", a new type of coronary implant which is also absorved when is no longer useful. It has a less sophisticated technology than that of the electronic devices, but it works similarily. Stents are a mesh-like tube of thin metal wire which are placed inside the artery to keep them open and facilitate blood flow after a heart attack has occurred. Stents have been placed permanently for years. The absorbable one, made of a material used in sutures, allowes the vessel to dilate and contract in a more natural way, as your body needs it. For example when you are running and need more blood flow. At the end of ist lifetime, the stent is complety disolved and the blood vessel remains open without any other extra support.
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