A motor tiny enough to fit through the vessels of the brain but with the power of a small kitchen appliance could revolutionise the treatment of strokes, its Australian developers say.
At only 250 microns wide, the micromotor is about the width of a human hair and the size of a grain of salt.
It is the world's strongest micromotor, with the equivalent driving power of a small kitchen appliance, according to a team from Melbourne's RMIT University and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
It was developed with the aim of treating strokes caused by blocked arteries, and cerebral aneurysms from weaknesses in brain arteries, in patients who can't be helped with standard surgical equipment.
The hospital's Associate Professor Bernard Yan said current neurointervention procedures were unsuccessful approximately 15 per cent of the time.
Microcatheters of flexible plastic with permanently bent tips were used to navigate through a patient's arteries and into their brain to reach the target, he said.
"The process is akin to navigating wet paper tubes with a half-boiled piece of spaghetti, and because the current tools are not flexible to guide through the tiny brain vessels, it can on rare occasion lead to puncturing an artery which can result in disability or death," Assoc Prof Yan said in a statement on Tuesday.
"This tiny motor means we can now look to develop instruments which can be steered with precision, guiding the catheter to its destination more quickly and accurately.
"This will have a dramatic improvement in stroke survival rates and improve our patients' quality of life."
Professor James Friend of RMIT said the first step was to develop a motor small enough to pass through the vessels that had sufficient torque to drive itself and the catheter along.
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Micromotor could help stroke treatment