Abstract:
Liver surgeries carry considerable risk of injury to major blood vessels, which can lead to hemorrhaging and possibly patient death. Photoacoustic imaging is one solution to enable intraoperative visualization of blood vessels, which has the potential to reduce the risk of accidental injury to these blood vessels during surgery. This paper presents our initial results of a feasibility study, performed during laparotomy procedures on two pigs, to determine in vivo vessel visibility for photoacoustic-guided liver surgery. Delay-and-sum beamforming and coherence-based beamforming were used to display photoacoustic images and differentiate the signal inside blood vessels from surrounding liver tissue. Color Doppler was used to confirm vessel locations. Results lend insight into the feasibility of photoacoustic-guided liver surgery when the ultrasound probe is fixed and the light source is used to interrogate the surgical workspace.
My Contributions
This paper stems from my summer research as a Leadership Alliance Scholar in the PULSE Lab at Johns Hopkins University (PI: Dr. Muyinatu (Bisi) Bell). During this internship, I contributed to the development of custom light delivery tools and autonomous robotic visual servoing for photoacoustic-guided liver surgery. I also presented this work at both the Leadership Alliance National Symposium and the Johns Hopkins Summer Research Symposium.
Leadership Alliance
From their Leadership Alliance website
‘The Leadership Alliance, founded at Brown University in 1992 as a partnership of 23 institutions, came together to develop underrepresented students into outstanding leaders and role models in academia, business, and the public sector. Today, this consortium has grown to 41 partners and has provided research, mentoring, and networking experiences to over 6000 scholars. The Leadership Alliance uses a time-tested model to leverage its collective resources to address the shortage of individuals from historically underrepresented groups in doctoral training programs, academia, and the broader research workforce.’
Skills
Computer-Aided Design (Solidworks), 3D Printing, Hand Tools, Data Analysis, Robotic Visual Seroving, Ultrasound, Laser Operation, Beamforming, Animal Studies
