TROY, N.Y., Feb. 21 (UPI) -- A wireless, implantable sensor can transmit data from the site of orthopedic surgery for accurate and less invasive monitoring, a U.S. scientist says.
Following an orthopedic procedure, surgeons usually rely on X-rays or MRIs to monitor the progress of a patient's recovery, but the sensor would instead provide surgeons detailed, real-time information from the actual surgery site, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute reported Tuesday.
The sensor, slightly more than 1/8 inch in diameter, needs no batteries and requires no electronics within the body.
Instead, its developer says, the sensor is powered by the external device used to capture the sensor data.
"Our new sensor will give surgeons the opportunity to make personalized, highly detailed, and very objective diagnoses for individual patients," Rensselaer faculty researcher Eric Ledet said. "The simplicity of the sensor is its greatest strength. The sensor is inexpensive to produce, requires no external power source, yet it is robust and durable."
The sensor, looking like a small coil of wire, is attached to commonly used orthopedic musculoskeletal implants such as rods, plates or prostheses, and can monitor and transmit data about the load, strain, pressure or temperature of the healing surgery site, Ledet said.
"Having a stream of real-time in vivo data should take some of the approximation and subjectivity out of declaring a patient recovered and ready to return to work," he said.
