APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IN VIVO MONITORING OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PRESSURES

摘要

The present invention provides in one aspect an apparatus for in vivo monitoring of physiological pressures, comprising a pressure sensor (2) having a pressure sensing interface, yielding a signal indicative of the pressure differential across said interface; means (3, 13) for pressurising or depressurising the sensor interior in response to a change in the signal from said sensor; pressure measuring means (5) for measuring the pressure supplied by the pressurising means yielding a signal indicative of the pressure in the sensor interior; and means (17) for registering a total pressure as the sum of the signals from said sensor and said pressure measuring means respectively. In another aspect it provides a method of localising a damaged intervertebral disk, comprising the steps of measuring the pressure in a first disk suspected to be damaged, measuring the pressure in the disks surrounding said suspected disk, preferably simultaneously with the measurements in the first disk, registering whether there is a difference in pressure between the disks, and selecting the disk with a differing pressure to be the damaged disk.