Laparoscopic optical sensing of gastroepiploic artery using near-infrared light stereo method

We developed an accurate 3D blood vessel search system for the laparoscopic surgery. In conventional optical systems, artery imaging and detection are difficult because peripheral bio-tissues of the artery disturb, disperse, and refract the light wave propagation, resulting in unclear images. To overcome this problem, we use the near-infrared light, two CMOS camera modules, and a image processing technique along with a stereo method. Unsharp-mask process was employed to sharpen the image quality. The detected artery position showed a good agreement with the true position of pig´s gastroepiploic artery specimen, thereby confirming the utility and accuracy of our system.