The Development of a Wireless Implantable Blood Flow Monitor

Microvascular anastomotic failure remains an uncommon but devastating problem. Although the implantable Doppler probe is helpful in flap monitoring, the devices are cumbersome, easily dislodged, and plagued by false-positive results. The authors have developed an implantable wireless Doppler monitor prototype from off-the-shelf components and tested it in a swine model. The wireless probe successfully distinguished between femoral vein flow, occlusion, and reflow, and wirelessly reported the different signals reliably. This is the first description of a wireless implantable blood flow sensor for flap monitoring. Future iterations will incorporate an integrated microchip-based Doppler system that will decrease the size to 1 mm, small enough to fit onto an anastomotic coupler.