Microrobot device removes brain hemorrhages

A new treatment for strokes caused by bleeding in the brain uses a magnetically controlled microrobot-enabled self-clearing catheter.

Hyowon “Hugh” Lee, a Purdue University associate professor, created the device and tested it on porcine models of hemorrhage in collaboration with neurosurgeons Dr. Timothy Bentley from Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Dr. Albert Lee from Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine in Carmel, Indiana.

The microrobots successfully removed the blood in six of seven animals in the treatment animal model.

“This innovation is a real advance in the care of strokes, which are notoriously difficult to treat,” Hugh says.

The current stroke treatment is a blood thinner called tissue plasminogen activator, which can’t be used for some hemorrhagic strokes.

“Patients with brain hemorrhages have a mortality rate of up to 50%,” Albert says. “Currently there’s no great therapeutic solution for intraventricular hemorrhage. The only other option is blood clot-dissolving drugs that have undesirable risks.”

Hugh’s innovation, developed with former graduate student Qi Yang, is remotely activated using externally applied magnetic fields.

“There’s no need for an implanted power source or complicated integrated circuit,” Hugh says. “As you change the direction of the magnetic field, the microdevice moves like a compass needle with a magnet nearby. They can be part of an implantable shunt system or a part of extra ventricular drainage systems.”

Hugh disclosed the innovation to the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization, which filed for a patent. The next step is receiving approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a first-in-human study.

Hugh’s collaborative research was funded by grants from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and the National Institutes of Health.

Purdue University
https://www.purdue.edu