Magnetic Microactuators for MEMS-Enabled Ventricular Catheters for Hydrocephalus

The most common treatment for patients with hydrocephalus is the surgical implantation of a cerebrospinal-fluid (CSF) shunt. A leading cause of shunt failure is the obstruction of the ventricular catheter. The goal of this project is to design a ventricular catheter that will resist occlusion through the use of micromachining and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technologies. We designed, fabricated, and tested a second-generation magnetic microactuator. The preliminary results show that the fabricated microactuators can produce the force necessary to break an adherent cellular layer grown over the microactuator surface.