Abstract
Laser surgery is a rising surgical technique, which offers several advantages compared to the traditional scalpel. However, laser surgery lacks a contact-free feedback system which offers high imaging contrast to identify the tissue type ablated and also a high penetration depth. Photoacoustic imaging has the potential to fill this gap. Since photoacoustic detection is commonly contact based, a new non-interferometric detection technique based on speckle-analysis for remote detection is presented in this work. Phantom and ex-vivo experiments are carried out in transmission and reflection-mode for proof of concept. In summary, the potential of the remote speckle sensing technique for photoacoustic detection is demonstrated. In future, this technique might be applied for usage as a remote feedback system for laser surgery, which could help to broaden the applications of lasers as smart surgical tools.
Highlights
Laser surgery enables accurate, fast and contact free tissue treatment[1,2,3]
The detection time of the photoacoustic signal matches the geometrical distance of the absorbing target to the phantom surface (x2) considering the time interval between the video frames
It needs to be noted that a penetration depth of 16.9 mm is high enough for the usage as a potential optical feedback system during laser surgery
Summary
Fast and contact free tissue treatment[1,2,3]. it offers decreased bleeding and a higher patient acceptance rate compared to traditional surgical methods[4,5,6,7]. The main challenge of using lasers as surgical scalpels is the lack of information of the tissue type ablated at the surface and its depth extent. It is possible to differentiate fat, muscle, nerve and skin tissue with very high sensitivities and specificities. The differentiation between fat and nerve tissue is challenging due to the fat-containing myelin sheath covering nerves In this case sensitivities higher than 95% are achieved[9]. It only offers information of the tissue at the surface, the influence of contaminants is not yet analysed and in-vivo experiments have not yet been done. Sensitivities of higher than 92% are achieved for the differentiation between skin, muscle, mucosa, fat and nerve tissue[13]. Spatial information on the region of interest is missing and it might suffer from interference from the stray light in surgical environments
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