Congratulations to Alycen Wiacek! Her first-author paper entitled Photoacoustic-guided laparoscopic and open hysterectomy procedures demonstrated with human cadavers was accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.
This work is the first to demonstrate a novel method for photoacoustic image-guided hysterectomies within the realistic imaging environment of a human cadaver during both open and laparoscopic procedures. With a contrast agent injected into the ureter, two laser wavelengths can be used to create a simultaneous display of the ureter and the uterine artery. This dual-wavelength approach was then integrated to create a novel surgical guidance system by estimating the tool-to-ureter distance and mapping that distance to an audible signal, similar to the parking sensor on a modern automobile. This auditory signal is intended to alert surgeons who are operating too closely to the ureter, which can lead to multiple life-threatening complications caused by accidental injury to the ureter during surgery.
Citation: Wiacek A, Wang KC, Wu H, Bell MAL, Photoacoustic-guided laparoscopic and open hysterectomy procedures demonstrated with human cadavers, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging (accepted May 13, 2021) [pdf]