Ferromagnetic implantation in human tissues

Surgeons are constantly looking for ways of imaging, holding, cutting and repairing diseased tissue, and for ways of doing this while minimising injury to the patient. Minimal Access or 'keyhole' techniques are often helpful, but the surgeon is limited in what he can see and feel, and in the range of instruments he can pass through the 'keyhole'. Giving the tissue magnetic properties is an intriguing possibility for enhancing what the surgeon could do: imaging disease preoperatively, finding disease during an operation, holding delicate tissue while working around it and checking the spread of disease through the lymph system would all be easier if the tissue was magnetic. Furthermore, if the surgeon wishes to use robots to assist in the surgical procedure it is easier to create small electromagnetic robotic components than their mechanical counterparts.This project aims to find ways of creating magnetic tissue and then measure the strength of magnetisation achievable. Three particular ways of creating magnetic tissue are envisaged. The first of these is to create surface treatments which can be applied to the tissue by mixing a magnetic material with an existing surgical glue. The second proposed method is to inject biologically safe magnetic material directly into the tissue. The final method is to use ultrasound or electric fields to force minute magnetic particles into the tissue's cells. The permeability of tissues treated in these ways can then be measured easily.This experience and data will establish how feasible it is create magnetic tissue before, or during, an operation and subsequently how feasible it is to create a range of medical technologies which utilise the magnetic properties of the tissues.