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AssigneeStereotaxis, Inc.
InventorsRogers C. Ritter, Bevil J. Hogg, Peter R. Werp, Francis M. Creighton, IV
Estimating the term…
An apparatus and method for locating a magnetic implant in a surgical application using the field of a source magnet for the implant guiding field. The source magnet is an electromagnet having a separate calibrated magnetic field component in addition to the guiding field, so that both the magnitude and orientation of the magnetic field as a function of position around the magnet are known. A magnetic implant is provided with a sensor, such as a three-axis Hall effect sensor, to provide an indication of the magnitude and orientation of an applied magnetic field when the implant is surgically implanted in a patient. After implantation, the source magnet is energized with a current having a modulated component. The modulated component is received and filtered from the signal received from the Hall effect sensor in the implant, and provided to a processor that computes the location of the implant.
A magnetic surgical implant in combination with a device for providing position data for the magnetic surgical implant having a magnetic field sensor which is guided or propelled through a patient's body by an external electromagnet, said device comprising a current source for supplying a modulated electrical current to the external electromagnet to thereby generate an oscillating magnetic field component, a demodulator coupled to the magnetic field sensor and responsive to a magnetic field direction and magnitude of the oscillating magnetic field component to provide a signal indicative of the oscillating magnetic field component at the location of the magnetic field sensor, a memory containing a representation of a relationship of spatial locations to a magnetic field pattern produced by the external magnet, and a data processor coupled to the demodulator and the memory and configured to compute a spatial location of the magnetic field sensor as a function of the signal indicative of the oscillating magnetic field component.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.