Cork researcher develops smart needle that knows where it's going

A RESEARCHER in Cork is developing a “smart needle” that knows where it is during an injection. It will improve the safety of clinical anaesthesia and should also be useful in the treatment of chronic pain.

Dr Eric Moore is a principal investigator in the Life Sciences Interface Group at the Tyndall National Institute. He has years of experience in developing tiny but sensitive sensors. He was approached about a year ago by anaesthetists Prof George Shorten of University College Cork and Dr Brian O’Donnell of Cork University Hospital who wanted a better way to deliver nerve-blocking anaesthetics.

Doctors can deaden nerves leading to the limbs by giving an injection close to but not in the main nerves running into the arms and legs, Dr Moore explained. “The danger is if the needle penetrates into the nerve it will cause damage. And if you inject the chemical into the nerve you can cause permanent damage.”

The doctors wanted a way to identify the type of tissue where the needle was, while guiding it into place using ultrasound. His idea was to develop twin sensors small enough to sit on the tip of the needle that could give a reading about the type of tissue it was penetrating.

Developing the sensors presents a major challenge given the scale, he said. He has already shown that prototype sensors can differentiate between muscle, fat and nerve tissues, so they are already well underway.

“I am hoping that within a year we will have a working prototype of the smart needle,” Dr Moore said.

– Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor