Bioengineering; Neurology meets Engineering (The Bioresorbable Brain Sensor)

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Have you ever tried to study how the brain works, its temperature, pressure or other brain related factors? The combination of technology (engineering) and neurology has brought to existence the development of a dissolvable, wireless sensor. A combination of neurosurgeons and engineers from Washington University school of Medicine and the University of Illinois brought about the development of the dissolvable brain sensor.

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With technology evolving, the development of a dissolvable brain sensor has been created to monitor the temperature and the intracranial pressure of the brain in patients with traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, dementia and other neurological conditions. This brain sensor would transmit information about the brain to the physician during and after a brain surgery. This sensors helps the neurosurgeon to get information about the brain for a period of time ascertaining the status of the brain.

Having an outside body inside the body of human for a very long time often increase the risk of infection, inflammation and erosion inside the body of the human, which this new technology has been able to solve.

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image Credit: Murphy

How the Dissolvable Brain Sensor

The device is made up of mainly polylactic-coglycolic acid (PLGA) and silicone, the bio-electric device is said to be resorbed into the body after it has completed its function inside the brain. When the scientist were testing the sensor, it was tested in a bath of saline solution which caused the device to dissolve but this did not happen until after a few days. Having gotten a result, it was tested in the brain of a lab rat (rodent) and it worked perfectly showing the pressure and temperature of the lab rat brain and also dissolved after completing its function. Its dissolving was dependent on the thickness of the coatings.

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dissolvable sensors degrade into nontoxic components
Credit: Natur

In cases where patients have traumatic brain related injuries that require surgery in which the pressure cannot be reduced by medications, the dissolvable brain sensor is placed in the skull close to the brain during the surgical operation so it can monitor the function of the brain and transmit signals showing the health status of the brain after which it dissolves when it is no longer in use.



With the rise in Bioengineering, I believe there will be more devices available to ease surgical processes as well as other medical procedures in the next few years.



You can read more about this here



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13 comments
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We are going to be doing telepathy soon.

Posted via Steemleo

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Yea... telepathy is here :)

Thanks for reading my post.

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Have you ever tried to study how the brain works, its temperature, pressure or other brain related factors?

No, for some reason, I never opened the head of anybody. :) But I'm curious, I saw a movie in which people were shouting "braaains, brtaaaains" all the time. :)

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Hahaha..... braains brtaaaains.... the world of technology is still in its infancy but even in its infancy it is changing the world.

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It is beautiful to see that the device dissolves after it has completed its work, this will prevent double surgery.

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The brain is a very complex organ that require proper care and excessive opening of the skull due to surgery will not be good for the brain so having a device that can be planted inside the brain without affecting the brain is an impressive technology in the neurological world

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It is quite interesting, it makes me think that a possible use at some future time for a more effective mind-machine integration than the current one.

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Dear @mojubare

I finally managed to find some time to read your publication. Sorry for such a late comment (quite busy few days).

Have you ever tried to study how the brain works, its temperature, pressure or other brain related factors?

And the answer is no ;) However I really enjoyed brief introduction to this topic. Most words like 'neurosurgeons' means unfortunatelly nothing to me lol

I do however agree, that with technology evolving and with us learning more and more about our brains - many current limitations will pretty much not exist any longer.

Solid read, Upvoted already,
Yours, Piotr

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Amazing!

This device seems out of a science fiction movie. It's like one of the gadgets Ethan Hunt uses in Impossible Mission.

I wish a device like this would have been available when my father suffered that Cardiovascular Event (CVE). His luck would have been different.

Thank you for sharing your work in our hive and being part of the Project Hope Family. Welcome!

Your friend, Juan.

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Hi! First, welcome to Project.Hope :D

Borg Technology! We are closer and closer! ^^

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