Robots smaller than most bacteria could deliver drugs right to the site of a brain aneurysm, preventing a devastating stroke, a new animal study suggests.
The new technology has been tested only in rabbits so far. But with further study, it could become an alternative to the stents and coils that are currently used to stabilize aneurysms in human patients.
These implants can stop the bleeding caused by an aneurysm, in which the wall of an artery weakens and balloons out. But the treatments can also have problems, such as the risk of bleeding starting up again or of the procedure only partially repairing the aneurysm. There can also be a need to take blood thinners indefinitely to avoid clots, said Qi Zhou, a research associate in bioinspired engineering at the University of Edinburgh and the co-author of a new paper describing the nanorobots.
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