Image-guided surgery

A new image-guided surgical instrument system that is currently under development in the US will be able to pinpoint the place that surgeons should make an incision on patients who have scar tissue.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington's College of Engineering are developing the Multifunctional Image Guided Surgical (MIGS) system, which integrates a depth-resolved optical imaging system, a laser scalpel, a miniature multi-axis translation system and a control system.

Digant Davé, assistant professor in bioengineering, is leading the team developing the system and has secured two grants totalling $614,000 (£368,950) from the National Institutes of Health to complete its development.

Quite often, patients who have had previous surgeries, radiation treatments, tumours or inflammation have adhesion between different tissues, leaving surgeons without the normal tissue plane guidance they rely upon to identify various organs.

'(But the new MIGS system) will enable us to see through scar tissue and identify critical regions between delicate structures, then enable us to use a very fine laser to cut through,' said Dr Edward Livingston, professor and chief of gastrointestinal and endocrine surgery at UT Southwestern and a professor of biomedical engineering.