The noncontact magnetic manipulation of probe masses within the body i
s an area of research that has received substantial attention from the
medical physics community, especially during the past three decades.
The therapeutic and diagnostic possibilities arising from such technol
ogy include site-specific drug delivery within the central nervous sys
tem, advancement of techniques for navigation and selective catheteriz
ation of vessels within the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems
, and the nonsurgical exploration of the alimentary and respiratory tr
acts. In this review, we examine the physical principles underlying in
vivo magnetic manipulation systems, and catalog the various types of
instrumentation used for such purposes to date. Thereafter, we evaluat
e the different methods of image-based localization used to identify t
he position of the probe within the body. Finally, we appraise an emer
ging technology known as nonlinear magnetic stereotaxis, a technique t
hat permits minimally invasive access to difficult-to-approach parts o
f the brain. We close the review with a few comments on the directions
for future work within this field.