Implantable Electrochemical Biosensors – A Perspective

Implantable electrochemical sensors offer great potential for improving the quality of healthcare for patients with chronic diseases (such as diabetes) and in hospital critical care. This chapter will deal with biosensors designed for continuous, real-time monitoring of analytes in the human body. Some of the recent developments and progress in the area of implantable electrochemical micro/nano biosensors have been highlighted. The focus of this work is on aspects requiring deliberation during the design of implantable biosensors such as size and power, performance factors and additional considerations such as sterilization and in vivo calibration. Particularly, issues such as selectivity, biofouling, power supply, sterility and in vivo calibration appear to preclude the use of biosensors as a means for routine clinical diagnosis and bedside monitoring. Despite advancements in the fields of micro/nano technology, biomaterials and bioelectrochemistry, and considerable effort to overcome these obstacles, continuous, real-time, reliable and long term monitoring of analytes in vivo still continues to be a challenge