Magnetic Targeting Systems for Endo-Bronchoscope Diagnosis and Intramedullary-Nail Surgery: A Review

Nowadays, magnetic targeting systems are developed for clinical/surgical applications, such as treatment of carotid artery aneurysm, endo-bronchoscopic diagnosis for lung-cancer tumors, colonoscopic diagnosis for colon-cancer tumors, and intramedullary interlocking-nail surgery. Based on clinical requirements, the targeting systems specific for above endo-bronchoscopic diagnosis and nail surgery are urgently needed and thus rapidly developed. Moreover, because the systems have similar magnetic configurations and use similar magnetic targeting principles, the systems can be reviewed together. Endo-bronchoscopic diagnosis is a new clinical-proved method for doctors to diagnose lung-cancer tumors/lesions. However, in the diagnosis, targeting the endo-bronchoscope to tumors/lesions must be repeated many times and thereby is inconsistent. Thus, diagnosis-yield decreases and diagnosis-duration increases. To address this issue, researchers developed novel magnetic targeting systems to more accurately and rapidly target the endo-bronchoscope, i.e., increase yield and save time. The systems are categorized to magnetic-sensors based and magnetic-materials based targeting systems. Representative systems are reviewed (design, targeting principles, test methods, results, and features are highlighted) in this paper. Intramedullary interlocking-nail surgery is a standard clinical-method for fractured-bones. In the surgery, 2D X-ray imaging system is a conventional most-used method to target distal screw-hole of the nail for fractured-bones fixing. However, patients are over-exposed under X-ray radiation. To solve this problem, researchers presented innovative magnetic targeting systems to target the screw-hole without any X-ray radiation. Same as above-section, the systems are divided to magnetic-sensors based and magnetic-materials based targeting systems. Representative systems and corresponding design, targeting principles, test methods, results, and features are reviewed in this paper.