Smart Catheters for Diagnosis, Monitoring, and Therapy.

Abstract

This review explores smart catheters as an emerging class of medical devices that combine embedded sensors, robotics, and communication systems with increasing functionality and complexity to enable real-time health monitoring, diagnostics, and treatment. Evolving from traditional catheters used as drains or entry ports, smart systems are now able to track blood pressure, temperature, biochemical signals, and mechanical forces within the body with a high degree of accuracy. Advances in materials, wireless communication, and robotic navigation have helped reduce common risks like infection and catheter blockage while also improving precision catheter placement for minimally invasive procedures. This review highlights recent developments across a variety of different types of smart catheters, ranging from sensing and imaging tools to therapeutic and multimodal systems. Additionally, it discusses the challenges that remain, including biocompatibility, long-term performance, and clinical translation. The incorporation of new capabilities is changing how catheters are used, and these new uses promise to enable more personalized and responsive healthcare.