Sci-fi Goggles For Cancer Surgeons – Technology At Its Best

Technology, as we know, is continuously advancing in leaps and bounds. But putting it to use in the health world can be a challenge, particularly when the risks involved in health can be fatal. However, many medical researchers are successfully attempting to solve the setbacks they face in the increasingly strenuous medical environment.

Researchers in the U.S, for example, have developed futuristic ‘€œsci-fi’€ goggles which help surgeons see tumours.

When it comes to dealing with tumours a lot of people end up being forced to have surgery. Usually, the only alternative to surgery is copious amounts of strong drugs combined with radiotherapy.

Surgeons have always found oncological surgery difficult. This is because cancerous cells are difficult to distinguish from healthy tissue using the naked eye.

Surgery can feel like a guessing game due the microscopic extent of tumours. Therefore, doctors often find that some cancerous cells are left behind in the outer layers of what appeared to be healthy cells even after a patient has gone through surgery. According to statistics published in Business Week 20 -€“ 40 percent of women need to have surgery for a second time, as not all cancerous cells are removed during their initial surgery.

New high tech goggles which enable surgeons to see tumours right down to their microscopic extent may help reduce this statistic.

Samuel Achilefu the brains behind these goggles, a professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, is said to have taken the idea from military night- vision goggles.

The technology uses two processes. First, doctors must inject a small amount of fluorescent dye into the patient’s bloodstream. This dye reacts with cancerous cells and gets trapped in them. Thus when infrared light contained in the revolutionary goggles reacts with the dye, only the cancerous cells glow blue.

Inevitably this makes it is much easier for surgeons to identify cancerous cells with just their eye. Glowing blue cancerous cells stand out even to the naked eye. Furthermore, it is easier to avoid removing any healthy cells that are conversely not glowing.

The man behind these goggles sees their use expanding beyond just enhancing the accuracy of surgical operations. Achilefu is said to see these goggles as a way of educating students in the field due to the goggles’ capacity to broadcast what surgeons see over the internet, in real time, for telemedicine applications.

The goggles have only recently been tested on humans but the final wireless version is estimated to be ready by the end of this year. According to Achilefu many companies have shown an interest in licensing the technology.