Imaging System for Cardiac Surgery

Stimulation by this laser emits a light that can outline the vessels and their attachments to the heart. The injected agent lights up blood flowing through the veins and arteries in real-time, and the camera captures live images of the heart. These images can be captured on a computer screen, saved, and printed for medical reference. The system has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The system enables cardiac surgeons to simply and efficiently confirm proper placement of their bypass grafts and to visually assess the quality and effectiveness of those grafts while the patient is still in the operating room. Previously, improperly functioning or
misplaced grafts have only been identified if the patient became unstable or demonstrated signs of ongoing lack of blood flow to the heart.

"For a cardiologist to deploy a stent without checking the result would be unacceptable and the same situation could be argued for coronary artery bypass surgery,” said Professor David Taggart, M.D., Ph.D., of the Oxford Heart Centre at the John Radcliffe Hospital (Oxford, UK). "Until recently, there has been no user-friendly system available to check graft quality in the operating room that produces high quality mages that are also easy to interpret. The SPY imaging system meets these criteria.”




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