System for mechanical adjustment of medical implants

摘要

A system for mechanically adjusting medical implants uses an external coil to set up a magnetic field. The magnetic field causes an actuator inside the implant to move in small steps, allowing fine adjustment. The element responding to the magnetic field can be magnetostrictive or SMA based. Large motions are made up from small steps by using two one-way clutches allowing the active element to move small increments in one direction. For SMA based devices, short burst of AC magnetic field are used. For magnetostrictive devices short pulse of unipolar magnetic field are used.