CHAPTER 5: In Vivo Sensors for Continuous Monitoring of Blood Gases, Glucose, and Lactate: Biocompatibility Challenges and Potential Solutions

The technology has existed for more than 40 years to construct miniature, robust sensors capable of monitoring important physiological analytes such as blood gases, glucose, lactate, etc. These sensors have never achieved widespread use in either the hospital setting or for ambulatory patients for in vivo, real-time monitoring due to unreliable performance when they are placed in the biological environment. In this chapter, we will examine the underlying biological response toward these devices placed in vivo, why the dynamic biological responses pose special challenges to real-time monitoring and review current strategies being investigated to overcome limitations on monitoring created by the physiological responses toward the implanted sensors. The ability to reliably monitor important analytes in real time offers the opportunity to radically improve patient care and improve the quality of life for ambulatory patients and warrants continued research to develop successful strategies that can achieve this important goal.