Intraoperative hyperspectral determination of human tissue properties

Abstract

We address the automatic differentiation of human tissue using multispectral imaging with promising potential for automatic visualization during surgery. Currently, tissue types have to be continuously differentiated based on the surgeon's knowledge only. Further, automatic methods based on optical in vivo properties of human tissue do not yet exist, as these properties have not been sufficiently examined. To overcome this, we developed a hyperspectral camera setup to monitor the different optical behavior of tissue types in vivo. The aim of this work is to collect and analyze these behaviors to open up optical opportunities during surgery. Our setup uses a digital camera and several bandpass filters in front of the light source to illuminate different tissue types with 16 specific wavelength ranges. We analyzed the different intensities of eight healthy tissue types over the visible spectrum (400 to 700 nm). Using our setup and sophisticated postprocessing in order to handle motion during capturing, we are able to find tissue characteristics not visible for the human eye to differentiate tissue types in the 16-dimensional wavelength domain. Our analysis shows that this approach has the potential to support the surgeon's decisions during treatment.

Hyperspectral imaging of human skin aided by artificial neural networks

“…Biomedical application of hyperspectral imaging [1] is nowadays an intensively developing area of the research supported by the recent technical progress in the instrument development and significant cost reduction. Potential applications of the considered technique are of high social impact and include monitoring and diagnostics of diabetic ulcer formation [2,3], rheumatic complications [4,5], wound healing control [6,7], diagnosis of melanoma [8,9] and other malignancies [10], support of surgical and treatment procedures [11,12] and others. Moreover, the development of portable and low-cost imaging systems [13][14][15] demonstrates strong potential for implementation of hyperspectral imaging technology in our everyday life and the day-to-day practice of clinicians.…”

Determination of optical properties of human tissues obtained from parotidectomy in the spectral range of 250 to 800 nm

“…These differences in the optical parameters substantiate the validity to detect and identify, automatically or semiautomatically, tissue types for active treatment decisions during imageguided surgery. 2,25,26 Intraoperative tissue properties can be analyzed using multispectral imaging to point out tissue differences in the visualization process using the knowledge acquired in this study. By contrast, it seems possible to use the results presented here to learn a classifier that makes tissue types more distinguishable intraoperatively.…”

“…Computer-aided detection and augmentation of sensible structures and tissues could lead to better results and more reliability in surgical procedures, especially in the head and neck region, with many sensible structures present. 2,3 For endoscopy-driven surgeries, the narrowband imaging technique of blood vessels in mucosal structures has proven the potential of using wavelength-filtered light to enhance the diagnostic outcome of visual patient data. 4 This technique uses light in the visual range.…”

Surgical Guidance for Removal of Cholesteatoma Using a Multispectral 3D-Endoscope

“…Based on 3D reconstruction results, contactless and radiation-free metric measurements of the anatomical structures can be performed [ 16 ]. In addition, spectral imaging can be used to detect optical tissue properties that are normally indistinguishable to the human eye [ 17 ]. All this additional knowledge has the potential to support the surgeon in his/her decision making and facilitate the surgical procedure when appropriate intraoperative real-time visualizations are used.…”