Tumor removal surgeries pose a great challenge even to skillful and experienced surgeons. Up to now, doctors depend exclusively upon their trained eyes when excising pieces of tumors. A new camera system developed by Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Auto- mation (IPA) in Germany can help visualize during operation even the smallest, easy-to-overlook malignant pieces of tumor and thereby support the surgeons during operations.
The camera can display fluorescent molecules that “paint” the cancer tissue. These are injected into the patient’s blood prior to the operation, and selectively attach onto the tumor during their trip through the body. If the corresponding area is then illuminated with a specific wavelength, fluorescence is emitted and the malignant tissue glows green, blue, red, or any other color, depending on the injected dye, while the healthy tissue appears the same. In this way, the surgeon can see clusters of tumors cells that cannot be recognized by the naked eye.
The multispectral fluorescence camera system will integrate into various medical imaging systems such as surgical microscopes and endoscopes. The camera can display several fluorescent dyes and the reflectance image simultaneously in real time. Arteries and delicate nerves that must not be injured during an intervention can likewise be colored with dye and detected with the new camera, since they are set apart from their surroundings.
The researchers require only one camera and one set of filters for their photographs, which can present up to four dyes at the same time. Software developed in-house analyzes and processes the images in seconds and presents it continuously on a monitor during surgery. The information from the fluorescent image is superposed on the normal color image.
