The development and application of magnetic surgery in clinical treatment

In the twenty-first century, increasing studies suggest that magnetic devices are employed for technical innovation and solving clinical bottleneck problems. Magnetic surgery technology uses specially designed magnetic medical instruments or equipment to transform the “non-contact” magnetic force into a particular force. This could play a specific function in clinical diagnosis and treatment, such as vascular anastomosis, tissue compression, instrument anchoring, surgical navigation, space expansion, and controlled tracing. According to different application methods and principles, magnetic surgery technology can be divided into the following five core categories: magnetic compression technique (MCT), magnetic anchor technology (MAT), magnetic navigation technology (MNT), magnetic levitation technology (MLT), and magnetic tracer technology (MTT). Some of these technologies present great superiority and tend to replace traditional approaches, which are widely used in multiple diseases, including digestive, gynecological, breast, and urinary. From this perspective of multidisciplinary, magnetism could be utilized in clinical practice well, and magnetic surgery has tremendous potential in clinical treatment. The application of magnetic surgery makes operation greatly simplified and the postoperative complications reduced. Meanwhile, the biological security of magnetic surgery is assessed, and a uniform standard needs to be established. Despite some challenges that still exist in the development of magnetic surgery, it is necessary to investigate and explore more novel technologies, which bring clinical benefits to patients.