Brain, aneurysm surgery

Catheter based diagnosis and therapy have become increasingly popular. Conventional catheters cannot move actively and the operations require certain human skill. If the direction of the tip of microcatheter and guide wires can be controlled outside the body, it would be very useful to use eatheter based diagnosis and therapy. Sueh eatheters are called active catheters . In order to develop active catheters, several miero-aetuators were applied to the active mieroeatheter system. The IPMC actuator is soft and driven by low voltage. And it is easy to miniaturize. Henee, the IPMC actuator was applied to the aetive microcatheter for aneurysm surgery in the brain. 

Fig.1 Schematic view of a micro-active catheter for aneurysm surgery left) on the brain based on a tubular IPMC actuator (right) (Reproduced from Oguro et al. 1999)...

A major advantage of endovascular therapy is the ability to treat more than one aneurysm in a single approach if different vessel territories are involved. Additionally, the increased manipulation of cerebral arteries and brain tissue during surgery can... 

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