Open Access
9 March 2020 Doppler optical coherence tomography for energy seal evaluation and comparison to visual evaluation
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Abstract

Laser energy sealing systems have attracted much attention over the past decade given the general shift in surgical paradigm toward less invasive surgical approaches. Given this, it is paramount to have an objective method with which the quality of energy seals can be evaluated. Current methodologies used for this purpose can be problematic in the evaluation of small vessel seals. A methodology employing Doppler optical coherence tomography (DOCT) for the evaluation of energy seals is introduced. Avian chorioallantoic membrane vessels were subjected to thulium laser irradiation and were then scanned via OCT. Outcomes were classified based on several markers, predominantly the presence or absence of flow postirradiation. Vessel diameter and general morphology were also taken into consideration. Vessels were classified into four groups: seal (29%), rupture (30%), partial seal (19%), and unaffected (22%). All vessels were also evaluated visually by a trained neurovascular surgeon, and these visually classified outcomes were compared with DOCT evaluated outcomes. It was found that whether the vessel was considered sealed or not sealed was dependent on the evaluation method (p  =  0.01) where visual classification resulted in 18% more seals than DOCT classification. Further, the specificity of visual classification was found to be strongly dependent on the number of partial seals (p  <  0.0001). DOCT has shown to be an indispensable method for the evaluation of energy seals not only solely due to its high velocity resolution but also due to valuable microscopic morphological insight regarding the biological mechanisms responsible for energy sealing.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Andrew J. Marques, Robnier Reyes, Christopher R. Pasarikovski, Chaoliang Chen, Joel M. Ramjist, Xijia J. Gu, and Victor D. Yang "Doppler optical coherence tomography for energy seal evaluation and comparison to visual evaluation," Journal of Biomedical Optics 25(3), 035003 (9 March 2020). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.25.3.035003
Received: 23 September 2019; Accepted: 20 February 2020; Published: 9 March 2020
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CITATIONS
Cited by 4 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Doppler tomography

Optical coherence tomography

Visualization

Content addressable memory

Laser systems engineering

Blood circulation

Laser irradiation

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