Tiny Implantable Sensors Could Transform Injury Rehabilitation
There is good news in the field of injury rehabilitation. Instead of recoveries taking a long time to heal with a lot of guesswork involved. A new sensor can determine how much rebab is actually needed.
Researchers at University of Oregon recently published a study in the journal Nature showing how they were able to optimize bone injury rehabilitation in rats using miniscule sensors implanted into the subjects. This could be a true breakthrough for anyone on the long, arduous journey towards injury recovery.
Real-time data
Injury rehabilitation can be a bit of a guessing game. Too much exercise can impede recovery, but so can too little exercise. So the researchers came up with an ingenious solution: tiny sensors that could be implanted in bones and provide them with real time data as to how an injury is healing.
The European Medical Journal points out, the sensors are greatly promising. Used in a clinical setting they could allow doctors and physiotherapists to personalize treatment plans for patients based on the data they procure from the sensors.
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Practical implications
In order to test the efficacy of the sensors, according to a press release from the University of Oregon, the researchers implanted the sensors in rats with broken femurs. What they were tracking was whether a specific type of recovery exercise, like resistance running, promotes healing. In order to do this they created brakes for rodent running wheels that could be used to add resistance as the rats ran.
The researchers then tracked the data from the implanted sensors over an eight week period. What they found was that as compared to rats that ran on a normal running wheel, the rats that had exercised on the resistance-added ones showed early signs of bone healing, and had denser tissue which is an indication that the resistance running enhanced bone formation. Even more so, the mechanical properties of the bones were comparable to non-injured bones.
“We are hopeful this work can one day be translated to clinical settings, where these sensors can capture personalized measurements that account for injury type and severity to best inform rehabilitation decisions,” Dr. Bob Guldberg, vice president and executive director of the Guldberg Lab at University of Oregon where the study took place, told the University of Oregon.
Injury recovery can be one of the most grueling experiences a person goes through. Now, thanks to the tiny sensors the healing process could potentially become a lot easier.
