Stereotaxis Niobe® magnetic navigation system for endocardial catheter ablation and gastrointestinal capsule endoscopy

The use of robotic instrumentations capable of assisting a medical staff during interventional or diagnostic procedures is rapidly growing today. Recently, a robotic system (Niobe®, Stereotaxis Inc., USA) has been developed for navigating magnetically-enabled tools inside the human body, by controlling a magnetic field. This paper reports the fundamentals of this technology and reviews its application in two specific medical fields, wherein its uses are different and have unlike stages of development. These two fields are cardiology and gastroenterology. In the first case, the system is already approved and employed for clinical treatments, such as magnetic steering of endocardial catheters for atrial fibrillation ablation, here specifically considered. In the second case, initial investigations are being performed today, to study the potential magnetic manoeuvrability of ingestible video capsules adopted for endoscopic explorations of the digestive tube. The paper reviews current achievements and highlights future challenges related to each of these applications.