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Microrobotics in the vascular network: present status and next challenges

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Abstract

The field of microrobotics dedicated to medical interventions although relatively new, is progressing at a very fast pace. Among the various accesses inside the body being investigated, the vascular network with close to 100,000 km of potential routes in each human and offering a large range of interventional opportunities has been of special interest in recent years. Although significant progresses and milestones have been achieved in this particular field of research, some important challenges remain to be solved before microrobotics in the human vasculature becomes a reality. Nonetheless, despite these challenges, some applications are already on the horizon. This paper aims at providing a quick overview of the present status of the field of microrobotics for interventions in the vascular network and to describe the main critical challenges that must be met in the short term to enable new or enhanced medical interventional procedures that may bring potential great outcomes for the patients.

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Acknowledgment

The author acknowledges the financial support from the Research Chair of École Polytechnique in nanorobotics and in part from a Discovery grant from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

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  1. NanoRobotics Laboratory, Department of Computer and Software Engineering, and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal (EPM), Campus of the Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Sylvain Martel

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Correspondence to Sylvain Martel.

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Martel, S. Microrobotics in the vascular network: present status and next challenges. J Micro-Bio Robot 8, 41–52 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12213-012-0054-0

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