Magnetic Fields Steer Catheter for Aneurysm Repair

In a clinical trial, doctors used a Magnetic Navigation System based on computer-controlled magnetic fields to steer a catheter within the blood vessels of the brain to reach an aneurysm, following x-ray imaging in a catheterization laboratory.

Although doctors regularly navigate catheters or guidewires manually to the brain via the femoral artery for the repair of aneurysms, they say this is the first time a catheter has been steered via computer-controlled magnetic fields. The new system was developed by Stereotaxis, Inc. (St. Louis, MO, USA) and is being tested as a new way to navigate devices within the brain and the heart. The technology integrates a magnetic field actuator with image guidance techniques and computer control to create an interventional workstation.

"Reaching the site of a brain aneurysm has always been a difficult procedure, but this new technology has the potential to improve the way we can gain access to sites in the brain during a procedure within the vascular system,” said Dr. Christopher J. Moran, associate professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO, USA) and principal investigator of the trial at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (also in St. Louis).





Related Links:
Sterotaxis
Washington U.