This New Surgical Needle Sends Real Image To Surgeon During Surgical Operations

Researchers from University College London (UCL) and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have worked together on a project to build up new optical ultrasound needle. This surgical needle allows the heart tissue to be imaged in real-time progressively during keyhole procedures. 

The surgical needle has been successfully put to test on pigs and gives the doctors a high-resolution picture of delicate[soft] heart tissue up to 2.5 cm in front of the needle. The needle can possibly make surgery quicker as well as more accurate too. Doctors need to depend on preoperative imaging scans and external ultrasound tests to enable them to visualize the delicate[soft] tissue that was being worked upon during a keyhole surgery.

The hole is too little to include imaging gadgets too, and this breakthrough innovation is a noteworthy game changer. Dr. Malcolm Finlay, examine co-lead and consultant cardiologist at QMUL and Barts Heart Center describes the new equipment, "The optical ultrasound needle is ideal for procedures where there is a little tissue focus that is difficult to see during keyhole surgery using current strategies and missing it could have terrible outcomes. We now have real-time imaging that enables us to separate between tissues at an exceptional depth, managing the highest risks moments of these procedures. This will decrease the odds of entanglements happening during routine but skilled procedures, for example, removal strategies in the heart. The technology has been designed to be totally good with MRI and other current methods, so it could likewise be utilized during brain or fetal surgery, or with guiding epidural needles." 

The instrument works by putting a miniature optical fiber inside a uniquely designed surgical needle. The needle can convey pulse of light that create ultrasonic pulses. These pulses are reflected from the delicate[soft] tissue and are detected by a second optical fiber equipped with a sensor that gives ongoing ultrasound imaging. 

The study's co-author, Dr. Richard Colchester (UCL Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering) portrays the new instrument's application: "The entire procedure happens to a great degree rapidly, giving an exceptional continuous perspective of delicate [soft] tissue. It provides doctors with a live picture with a resolution of 64 microns, which is what might as well be called just nine red platelets, and its awesome sensitivity enables us to readily differentiate delicate[soft] tissues."

The technology has only been made possible by the development of a black material that contains a mesh of carbon nanotubes and the creation of optical fibers based on polymer optical microresonators for detecting ultrasound waves. The team is still working together and might use this technology to develop other keyhole surgery tools.