MagStone: Kidney stone removal via magnetic hydrogel

Image credit: Inventors' Lab
A medical device using a magnetic hydrogel for effective and efficient retrieval of kidney stone fragments during surgery.
About the Technology
Kidney stones are an increasingly prevalent disease that can cause debilitating pain, life-threatening infection, or renal failure resulting from obstruction of the urinary tract. Surgical removal of kidney stones is indicated to avoid these negative consequences, but the current standard of care frequently leaves behind residual stone fragments that can re-obstruct or grow into larger stones, leading to downstream clinical complications ranging from unplanned medical visits for pain to requiring repeat surgery.
With over 400,000 ureteroscopies performed in the US every year, there is a strong unmet need for a more efficient and effective method to improve the stone-free rate to reduce patient morbidity. We have developed the MagStone System, a medical device that uses a magnetic hydrogel to magnetize stone fragments which are then removed in bulk with a magnetic wire.
With HIT Fund support, we aim to reach a design freeze for the device by conducting summative human factor testing and delineating a preclinical and clinical testing plan with the FDA for De Novo premarket approval.
Team Members
Publications
- Ge TJ, Roquero DM, Holton GH, Mach KE, Prado K, Lau H, Jensen K, Chang TC, Conti S, Sheth K, Wang SX, Liao JC. A magnetic hydrogel for the efficient retrieval of kidney stone fragments during ureteroscopy. Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 22;14(1):3711. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-38936-1. PMID: 37349287; PMCID: PMC10287666.
Related Web Links
- Stanford Office of Technology Licensing Techfinder Docket S20-453: Magnetic medical device for efficient removal of kidney stones during ureteroscopy