Contactless blood perfusion assessment of the free flap in breast reconstruction surgery
Journal article, Peer reviewed
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Date
2019Metadata
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International Symposium on Medical Information and Communication Technology. 2019, 2019-May:8743657 1-4. 10.1109/ISMICT.2019.8743657Abstract
Remote photoplethysmography proved useful as anon-contact method for estimating physiological data from dif-ferent parts of the body. Recent studies have mainly focused onthe face region for extraction of blood pulsation signal. In thispaper, we have demonstrated the feasibility of non-contact remotephotoplethysmography in the monitoring of free flap tissue. Anexperimental study was conducted, where video recordings offree flaps are obtained during breast reconstruction surgery for 8patients. The hemoglobin absorption rate of the free flap is closelyrelated to signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values extracted fromfree flap pulsation signal during surgery. Obtained results showsignificantly lower SNR values when the free flap is disconnectedfrom the blood supply compared to the SNR values when theflap is intact or after successful blood supply establishment. Thismethod shows potential as a convenient, non-invasive and reliabletool in post-operative microvascular free flap monitoring