Benefits of Nanotechnology in Cardiovascular Surgery—A Review of Potential Applications

Abstract

Nanotechnology is a area of science that involves working with materials and devices on a nanoscale level. On scalable terms, a nanometer is approximately 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair, or 10 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom. Its functions are spread across all areas of sciences including physics, chemistry, and biology. Nanotechnology has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years—applications of this technology in the field of medicine have been an important spin-off. Many biological structures are at nanometer scale. For example, a quantum dot is approximately the size of a small protein (less than 10nm) and drug-carrying nanostructures are the same size as some viruses (less than 100nm). Applications of nanotechnology for the treatment, diagnosis, monitoring, and control of biological systems has recently been referred to as ‘Nanomedicine’ by the National Institutes of Health (NIH.