© 2003 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, Volume IIA: Biocompatibility, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 2003

15.5.3 Vascular Mechanocompatibility

Medical nanorobots may be resident in the vascular compartments of the human body for extended periods of time. Such devices may take the form of individual nanorobots or nanorobotic aggregates arranged in 1-, 2- or 3-dimensional arrays (Chapter 14), and may be free-floating, vasculomobile (endothelial surface locomotion), or anchored. Nanorobots in all their forms must be as mechanically biocompatible with the vascular walls (Section 15.5.3.1) as are stents (Section 15.5.3.2), must not produce mechanical vasculopathies whether obstructive (Sections 15.5.3.3 or 15.5.3.6) or destructive (Section 15.5.3.4), and must not provoke deleterious changes in vascular permeability (Section 15.5.3.5).

Last updated on 30 April 2004