UMC Utrecht is the first hospital in the world to use a new technology that makes feeding wires and catheters visible with light instead of X-rays. Philips and the Cardiovascular Center at UMC Utrecht have been collaborating on the development of this technology since 2012, and the first clinical results are now available. “The guidewires and catheters can be imaged in 3D without X-rays and are therefore easier to interpret and this makes operations easier. This is of enormous added value for the patient and staff in the operating room,” said UMC Utrecht vascular surgeon Joost van Herwaarden.
It is common practice for minimally invasive vascular surgery to be performed using guide wires and catheters in the patient’s body that are made visible with X-rays. This shows these medical devices in 2D in grayscale on a screen. The new Fiber Optic RealShape (FORS) technology can now visualize these medical devices using light sent through embedded glass fibers in a liner wire. Combined with Philips imaging equipment, this produces real-time 3D images in bright, contrasting colors. The usefulness of this new technology in surgery was proven in recent months during a clinical study at UMC Utrecht led by Van Herwaarden. In this study, twenty-one patients with vascular constrictions and dilations (aneurysms) were successfully operated.
Because the catheter and guide wires are much more clearly visible during surgery and in 3D, medical specialists can see their medical devices better. This is expected to make operations shorter and easier. However, this remains to be proven in follow-up studies. When less X-rays are needed in operations, this is not only good for the patients involved, but certainly also for the employees who work with this harmful radiation every day.
Vascular surgery is becoming increasingly complex as more procedures can be performed with medical devices ìin the body rather than through open surgery. To further develop this innovative technology and demonstrate its value scientifically, technological and clinical studies will be conducted in the coming years. Van Herwaarden: “Follow-up studies must show to what extent this technology will make procedures shorter and more efficient, what this means for the cost per operation and the improvement of the quality of diagnostics and treatment.”
Bert van Meurs is Chief Business Leader of Image Guided Therapy at Philips and is enthusiastic about this innovation: “We are proud to work with UMC Utrecht on this innovation with the goal of performing surgeries in 3D color image with as little X-rays as possible. I expect that the application of this technology in combination with other imaging techniques will usher in a new era in image-guided technology.”
