Smart Implants to Monitor Healing

Summary: A newly developed, self-powered smart implant is able to monitor spinal fusion healing.

Source: University of Pittsburgh

Spinal fusion—fusing two vertebrae together—can treat a wide variety of spinal disorders. Often, surgeons will use a cage to provide support where the disk once was between the vertebrae. But what if those cages could support the spine’s healing in more ways than one?

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering are creating patient-specific 3D-printed smart metamaterial implants that double as sensors to monitor spinal healing. A paper detailing their work was recently published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

“Smart implants can provide real-time biofeedback and offer many therapeutic and diagnostic benefits,” said Amir Alavi, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, whose iSMaRT Lab led the research.

“But it is very challenging to integrate bulky circuits or power sources into the small area of implants. The solution is to use the implant matrix as an active sensing and energy harvesting medium. That’s what we’ve been focused on.”

The Intelligent Structural Monitoring and Response Testing (iSMaRT) Lab has developed a new class of multifunctional mechanical metamaterials, which act as their own sensors, recording and relaying important information about the pressure and stresses on its structure. The so-called “meta-tribomaterials” a.k.a. self-aware metamaterials, generate their own power and can be used for a wide array of sensing and monitoring applications. 

The material is designed such that under pressure, contact-electrification occurs between its conductive and dielectric microlayers, creating an electric charge that relays information about the condition of the material matrix. In addition, it naturally inherits the outstanding mechanical tunability of standard metamaterials.

A close-up of the smart implant for spinal fusion surgery created by the iSMaRT Lab. Credit: iSMaRT Lab

The power generated using its built-in triboelectric nanogenerator mechanism eliminates the need for a separate power source, and a tiny chip records data about the pressure on the cage, which is an important indicator of healing. The data can then be read noninvasively using a portable ultrasound scanner.

Not only is the proposed cage unique in its sensing capabilities, but it’s also made of a highly tunable material that can be customized to the patient’s needs.

“Spinal fusion cages are being widely used in spinal fusion surgeries, but they’re usually made of titanium or PEEK polymer materials (a semi-crystalline, high-performance engineering thermoplastic) with certain mechanical properties,” explained Alavi.

“The stiffness of our metamaterial interbody cages can be readily tuned. The implant can be 3D-printed based on the patient’s specific anatomy before surgery, making it a much more natural fit.”

The team has successfully tested the device in human cadavers and are looking to move on to animal models next. Because the material itself is incredibly tunable and scalable, the smart sensor design could be adapted to many other medical applications in the future, like cardiovascular stents or components for knee or hip replacements.

“This is a first-of-its-kind implant that leverages advances in nanogenerators and metamaterial to build multifunctionality into the fabric of medical implants,” said Alavi. “This technological advancement is going to play a major part in the future of implantable devices.”

About this neurotech research news

Author: Maggie LindenbergSource: University of PittsburghContact: Maggie Lindenberg – University of Pittsburgh
Image: The image is credited to iSMaRT Lab

Original Research: Closed access.
“Patient-Specific Self-Powered Metamaterial Implants for Detecting Bone Healing Progress” by Amir Alavi et al. Advanced Functional Materials

Abstract

Patient-Specific Self-Powered Metamaterial Implants for Detecting Bone Healing Progress

There is an unmet need for developing a new class of smart medical implants with novel properties and advanced functionalities.

Here, the concept of “self-aware implants” is proposed to enable the creation of a new generation of multifunctional metamaterial implantable devices capable of responding to their environment, empowering themselves, and self-monitoring their condition. These functionalities are achieved via integrating nano energy harvesting and mechanical metamaterial design paradigms.

Various aspects of the proposed concept are highlighted by developing proof-of-concept interbody spinal fusion cage implants with self-sensing, self-powering, and mechanical tunability features. Bench-top testing is performed using synthetic biomimetic and human cadaver spine models to evaluate the electrical and mechanical performance of the developed patient-specific metamaterial implants.

The results show that the self-aware cage implants can diagnose bone healing process using the voltage signals generated internally through their built-in contact-electrification mechanisms. The voltage and current generated by the implants under the axial compression forces of the spine models reach 9.2 V and 4.9 nA, respectively. The metamaterial implants can serve as triboelectric nanogenerators to empower low-power electronics.

The capacity of the proposed technology to revolutionize the landscape of implantable devices and to achieve better surgical outcomes is further discussed.