ABSTRACT

Even assuming that nanorobots have biocompatible external surfaces that do not activate any of the body’s natural defensive systems, medical nanodevices might still provoke unwanted reactions by physical displacement of critical biological systems or fluids. In nanomedicine, volumetric intrusiveness is a measure of the degree to which artificial nanosystems can safely and harmlessly volumetrically displace natural biological systems. In this Chapter we will briefly consider the acceptable volumetric intrusiveness o f nanorobot populations and nanostructured macroscopic objects placed inside the human body (Section 15.6.1), in the human blood­ stream (Section 15.6.2), and inside human cells (Section 15.6.3). Issues of functional intrusiveness (Chapter 17) and thermal intru­ siveness (Section 6.5.2) are discussed elsewhere, although techno­ logical intrusiveness is briefly mentioned in Section 15.6.4.