A company out of Brisbane, Australia, has recently obtained FDA approval to manufacture the world’s smallest screw for use in orthopedic surgery. At just 1.5 mm long and 1.2 mm in diameter, the design highlights the prevalence of the ever-shrinking (in size, not demand) technologies in use by the medical industry. The screw is hyper-designed with orthopedics in mind: half of its diameter is cannulated so it can be inserted over wires, which allows surgeons to move more quickly and perform more accurate repairs of delicate bone fractures.
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These custom screws are by no means the only small screws used in medicine. Technology is advancing at a rate that engineering struggles to keep up with; microscale tools and machinery allow surgeons access to the smallest, most hard-to-reach and delicate parts of the bodies, and they need miniature screws to keep their microtechnologies together.
“Our doctors drive the surgical outcomes we want, but every step of the way they are working with the engineers to understand the limits of the materials.”
We have come a long way from the society that first invented the screw back in 200 B.C.; science is advancing remarkably quickly, creating a need for engineering to keep pace as it delves into the most minuscule parts of the human body. Nanotechnology has already made leaps and bounds in this aspect, specifically in the treatment of cancers. Through this single advancement, people no longer need to suffer the agonies of chemotherapy and radiation because nanotechnology is targeting only the cancerous region and cells, not the entire body.
Who knows what the future may bring? Today, customized micro screws are being used in everything from light fixtures to laptops, air conditioners to cell phones, but tomorrow? The first step, if you’ll pardon the pun, has already been made through the invention of this new orthopedic micro screw. In a decade or a century, we may actually see the use of nanorobots and technology that requires the use of a microscope to even notice. Customized micro screws will play a huge role in the destiny of medicine, if current events are anything to go by.