Endoscopic ICG perfusion imaging for flap transplants: technical development

Objective: Following tumour surgery in the head and neck region, skin flap transplants are usually required to cover the resection area. The purpose of the development was to provide a simple and reliable means to assess whether the transplanted flap is sufficiently perfused. Methods: Fluorescence of intravenously injected Indocyanine green (ICG) was detected with a slightly modified 3-chip CCD camera. Appropriately coated optical filters allow for excitation of ICG with NIR light and detection of NIR ICG-fluorescence with the blue channel of the camera. In addition, low intensities of white light can be transmitted to allow for simultaneous display of a remission image in the green and red channels of the camera. Further processing was performed with a LabVIEW program. Results: A satisfactory white light image (red, green and blue display (RGB)) could be calculated from the remission images recorded with the green and red channels of the camera via a look-up table. The look-up table was programmed to provide an optimized blue intensity value for each combination of red and green values. This was generated using a reference image. Implementation of image tracking and intensity measurements in regions of interest (ROIs) in the images is useful to reliably monitor perfusion kinetics of flap and adjacent normal tissue.