Could hyperspectral imaging be microsurgery’s next big thing?
In an article in Imaging & Machine Vision Europe, imec expert Wouter Charle discusses the promising integration of hyperspectral cameras in microsurgical workflows.
Over the past few decades, microsurgery emerged as a surgical discipline that hails benefits such as smaller incisions, reduced risk of complications, and less postoperative pain. The enhancement of surgical microscopes to “make the invisible visible” broadens the applicability of microsurgical procedures even further.
For example, the integration of hyperspectral imaging in the microsurgical workflow would allow surgeons to make decisions based on real-time information about the chemical composition of tissues.
Until now, that integration was hampered by the bulky form factor of spectral cameras, and their inability to record images at video rate. But that’s about to change thanks to imec’s on-chip hyperspectral filter technology.
In this article, imec expert Wouter Charle allows a glimpse into an exciting future for medical treatment – one that is much closer than you might think. And he touches upon a concrete example of the use of hyperspectral imaging in microsurgery: the in vivo identification of low-grade gliomas.
