BACKGROUND
Minimally invasive surgical procedures are increasingly becoming preferred approaches for the management of various benign and malignant surgical conditions. Comparing with open surgical procedures, minimal invasive procedures face challenges in proper identification of anatomical danger zones which includes arteries, veins, ureter, bowel, bile duct, etc. As these zones are situated under the tubular structure surgeon cannot see them and have chances of injury. Recent studies have developed some probes which aims to sense the arteries using mechanical pressure changes due to pulsation and by detecting variation of electrical impedance in the arteries. These methods, however, may not be effective for the regions with low pulsation and vital organs including ureters, bile ducts and bowel. Some other procedures which include light absorption in the visible spectrum by hemoglobin in the superficial tissue that is accessible by surface reflection cannot detect the tubular structures at a few millimeters depth below and around the dissecting plane.
SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY
OSU researchers have developed a method of implementing diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS) in a laparoscopically compatible device for the detection of sub-surface tubular structures of few millimeters in diameter and up to 1 cm in depth, which provides intraoperative assistance to the surgeon through identification of these tubular structures without interrupting the dissection workflow. The DOS probe can be integrated into the existing tissue manipulating instrument without any changes to the physical structure of the tissue manipulating instrument.
POTENTIAL AREAS OF APPLICATION AND MAIN ADVANTAGES
Can be integrated in any laparoscopic surgical instrument in hospitals and clinics to visualize a tubular structure underneath and around the tissue, thus preventing any possible injury.
COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITY
Due to the increased practice of minimally invasive surgical procedures and rising concerns regarding the safety, the market of probes and technology for detecting and visualizing tubular structures is increasing rapidly. The global market for minimally invasive surgery is estimated at US$49 billion in 2020 and is projected to grow to US$90 billion by 2027. The growing minimal invasive surgery market needs more imaging tools for safe surgery.
STATE OF DEVELOPMENT
A proof of concept and a working prototype of this patent protected technology to detect tubular structure on a biologically equivalent liquid medium is available in the researcher’s lab.