Implants & Prosthetics

University of California-Irvine neuroscientists have developed a unique method to stop severe episodes of epileptic seizures with fiber optic light signals. Using a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy, the research team created an EEG-based computer system that activates hair-thin optical strands implanted in...

A team of engineers at Duke University, Durham, NC, are layering atom-thick lattices of carbon with polymers to create unique materials with a broad range of applications, including artificial muscles. Because of its unique optical, electrical, and mechanical properties, graphene is used in electronics,...

A team of researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, say that they have created the world’s first implantable robotic arm controlled by thoughts. Prosthetic leg technology has advanced rapidly in the past decade, but prosthetic arm advances have been much slower. Since...

Recently, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, surgically implanted a pacemaker-like device into the brain of a patient in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, the first such operation in the United States. The device, which provides deep brain stimulation and has been used in...

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, announced a four-year joint project to develop a below-knee prosthesis capable of actively powering the ankle joint powered by a gas- or liquid-based...

Bioengineers at Tufts University School of Engineering, Medford, MA, have demonstrated that silk-based implantable optics can enhance tissue imaging, administer heat, deliver and monitor drugs. In addition, the devices are biodegradable and biocompatible, harmlessly dissolving at predetermined rates and...

Breast cancer is a terrible affliction that affects approximately one in eight women in the US. In 2012, nearly a quarter- million cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women. Due to the progress of medicine and associated treatment, the death rate associated with breast...

A new study shows that many implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which are designed to detect and correct dangerous heart rhythms, are programmed to too low a setting, delivering painful shocks for heart rhythms that aren’t dangerous. Making a simple change in the way physicians set...

Engineers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, tested an energy-harvesting device that uses piezoelectricity — an electrical charge generated from motion — to convert energy from a beating heart to provide enough electricity to power a pacemaker. As reported in a study presented at the American Heart...

For decades, overtightening was blamed for causing surgical screws and plates used in bone repair to irreversibly fuse together, making subsequent removal difficult for the surgeon and traumatic for the patient. But a new study from the University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH, explains...

Disease and damage to the cornea can cause blindness. While corneal transplants could save sight, donor corneas may be hard to come by, and may not be tolerated. A safe artificial cornea could be a solution to saving the vision of those affected. In cooperation with the Aachen Centre of Technology...

Researchers at the University of Illinois (UI), Champaign, in collaboration with Tufts and Northwestern universities, have created a new class of electronic devices: biocompatible and biodegradable electronics for medical implants that can dissolve completely in water or in body fluids. “We refer to this type of...

Biomechanical engineers at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, determined that thigh size in obese people is a reason their hip implants are more likely to fail. In a study, the team simulated hip dislocations as they occur in humans and determined that increased thigh girth creates hip instability in...