Researchers at University of California, Riverside and Mexico’s Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada have been working on confirming the safety and usefulness of their transparent cranial window implant we first reported on a few years ago. It was designed to allow lasers to be used to repeatedly treat locations deep inside the brain that are currently impossible to get to using traditional means. This would allow for new therapies to be developed that rely on treating patients over long periods since access to the brain would remain.
The implant that replaces a part of the skull consists of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) that is already used in orthopedic and dental implants. It’s very strong while maintaining transparency.
In their latest work the researchers showed that they can use lasers to kill bacteria forming around the implant, and maintaining a clear window for targeting the brain. They also demonstrated that when implanted into an animal, the implant does not arise an immune response or any other noticeable side effects.
“The YSZ was actually found to be more biocompatible than currently available materials, such as titanium or thermo-plastic polymers, so this was another piece of good news in our development of transparent YSZ as the material of choice for cranial implants,” said Guillermo Aguilar, professor of mechanical engineering at UC Riverside.
Flashback: Transparent Cranial Window Implant for Brain Monitoring, Laser Therapy…
Study in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine: Evaluation of laser bacterial anti-fouling of transparent nanocrystalline yttria-stabilized-zirconia cranial implant…
Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine: Inflammatory response to implantation of transparent nanocrystalline yttria-stabilized zirconia using a dorsal window chamber model…