title: Magnetically driven medical devices: a review.
abstract: A widely accepted definition of a medical device is an instrument or apparatus that is used to diagnose, prevent or treat disease. Medical devices take a broad range of forms and utilize various methods to operate, such as physical, mechanical or thermal. Of particular interest in this paper are the medical devices that utilize magnetic field sources to operate. The exploitation of magnetic fields to operate or drive medical devices has become increasingly popular due to interesting characteristics of magnetic fields that are not offered by other phenomena, such as mechanical contact, hydrodynamics and thermodynamics. Today, there is a wide range of magnetically driven medical devices purposed for different anatomical regions of the body. A review of these devices is presented and organized into two groups: permanent magnetically driven devices and electromagnetically driven devices. Within each category, the discussion will be further segregated into anatomical regions (e.g., gastrointestinal, ocular, abdominal, thoracic, etc.).
authors: a 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado , Boulder, Colorado 80309-0427, USA.
authors: Levin
authors: L
authors: Sliker
authors: b 2 The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna , 56025 Pontedera, Pisa, Italy.
authors: Gastone
authors: G
authors: Ciuti
authors: a 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado , Boulder, Colorado 80309-0427, USA.
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Rentschler
authors: b 2 The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna , 56025 Pontedera, Pisa, Italy.
authors: Arianna
authors: A
authors: Menciassi
mesh_terms: D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D006801:Humans; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D008280:Magnetics
keywords: abdominal; ear nose throat; electromagnet; gastrointestinal; medical device; ocular; permanent magnet; thoracic