Nanotechnology for surgeons

At first glance it might appear that nanomedicine is irrelevant to surgery as it is practiced today, as surgery is generally concerned with the manipulation of decidedly macroscopic devices. However, surgery as a discipline is obviously not limited to clinical procedures, but dovetails with parallel medical therapeutics. Consequently, methodologies that can enhance overall perioperative care are important. An alternative view is that nanomedicine is perhaps destined to put surgeons out of certain kinds of business—much as minimally invasive techniques including invasive radiology have progressively infringed on clinical areas that were once the purview of more conventional surgical approaches. As is often the case, the truth is somewhere in the middle. In any event nanotechnology certainly has the potential to affect the field. It is important to understand that potential and how it can be harnessed. WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 2011 3 223–228 DOI: 10.1002/wnan.128 This article is categorized under: Diagnostic Tools > Diagnostic Nanodevices Implantable Materials and Surgical Technologies > Nanoscale Tools and Techniques in Surgery Toxicology and Regulatory Issues in Nanomedicine > Toxicology of Nanomaterials