Micromechanical Devices for Intravascular Drug Delivery

Abstract

0 Microfabrication technology, more commonly applied to the manufacture of integrated circuits, can be used to build devices useful for mechanical delivery of drugs and genes. Microprobes fabricated using silicon micromachining have been used to deliver DNA into cells as an alternative to bombardment and microinjection. This idea can be extended to intravascular stents with integrated microprobes capable of piercing compressed plaque and delivering anti-restenosis therapies into coronary arteries. Preliminary experiments using filleted rabbit arteries have demonstrated transection of the internal elastic lamina. New nonplanar microfabrication technologies are necessary for creating practical devices with cylindrical symmetry; a promising possibility is to use microfabricated structures of anodic metal oxides.

A BioMEMS Review: MEMS Technology for Physiologically Integrated Devices

“…This plaque can be up to 200 m thick and is quite compressed. Silicon microprobes could be used to deliver therapeutic agents, such as those described above, to the arterial wall [73]. The microprobes can be fabricated by anisotropic (potassium hydroxide) etching of silicon using photolithographically patterned silicon dioxide as an etch mask.…”

Electroactive controlled release thin films

“…However, although these technologies have resulted in encouraging new treatment possibilities, several challenges still remain. For example, the direct integration of these systems into nonplanar, functional, or structural implants such as arterial stents, medical sutures, and bone prostheses is challenging because photolithographic and micromachining techniques are primarily developed for planar substrates (6). Furthermore, the multistep processing of these systems can be both time-consuming and expensive (7).…”

MEMS: Enabled Drug Delivery Systems

“…Reprinted with permission. [ 44 ] Copyright 2000, John Wiley and Sons. developed a high-frequency piezoelectric cantilever-valve micropump for site specifi c drug delivery.…”