Merged Near-Infrared and White-Light Imaging in Minimally Invasive Surgery.

Abstract

Dear Editor, We read with interest the review article entitled ‘‘NearInfrared Fluorescence Imaging for Real-Time Intraoperative Anatomical Guidance in Minimally Invasive Surgery: A Systematic Review of the literature’’ by Schols et al. [1] Although we applaud the authors’ extensive literature review and thoughtful discussion, the authors incorrectly state that merged near-infrared (NIR) and whitelight (WL) image capabilities have not been incorporated into a laparoscopic or robotic platform. I respectfully refer them to a growing body of literature using the Pinpoint and Firefly systems (Novadaq Technologies, Mississauga, ON, Canada), both of which are designed specifically for merging NIR to WL images in laparoscopic and robotic surgery, respectively [2–4]. Merged WL and NIR imaging is the key to providing surgeons with truly augmented vision and the aforementioned commercially available systems very effectively allow for real-time minimally invasive surgery with a seamlessly superimposed fluorescence overlay.