Laser-induced tissue fluorescence in radiofrequency tissue-fusion characterization

Heat-induced tissue fusion is an important procedure in modern surgery and can greatly reduce trauma, complications, and mortality during minimally invasive surgical blood vessel anastomosis, but it may also have further benefits if applied to other tissue types such as small and large intestine anastomoses. We present a tissue-fusion characterization technology using laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy, which provides further insight into tissue constituent variations at the molecular level. In particular, an increase of fluorescence intensity in 450- to 550-nm range for 375- and 405-nm excitation suggests that the collagen cross-linking in fused tissues increased. Our experimental and statistical analyses showed that, by using fluorescence spectral data, good fusion could be differentiated from other cases with an accuracy of more than 95%. This suggests that the fluorescence spectroscopy could be potentially used as a feedback control method in online tissue-fusion monitoring.