Optical Nerve Detection by Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy for Feedback Controlled Oral and Maxillofacial Laser Surgery

Florian Stelzle, Azhar Zam, Werner Adler, Katja Tangermann-Gerk, Alexandre Douplik, Emeka Nkenke, Michael Schmidt

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: Laser surgery lacks haptic feedback, which is accompanied by the risk of iatrogenic nerve damage. It was the aim of this study to investigate diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for tissue differentiation as the base of a feedback control system to enhance nerve preservation in oral and maxillofacial laser surgery.Methods: Diffuse reflectance spectra of nerve tissue, salivary gland and bone (8640 spectra) of the mid-facial region of ex vivo domestic pigs were acquired in the wavelength range of 350-650 nm. Tissue differentiation was performed using principal component (PC) analysis followed by linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Specificity and sensitivity were calculated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and the area under curve (AUC).Results: Five PCs were found to be adequate for tissue differentiation with diffuse reflectance spectra using LDA. Nerve tissue could be differed from bone as well as from salivary gland with AUC results of greater than 88%, sensitivity of greater than 83% and specificity in excess of 78%.Conclusions: Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is an adequate technique for nerve identification in the vicinity of bone and salivary gland. The results set the basis for a feedback system to prevent iatrogenic nerve damage when performing oral and maxillofacial laser surgery.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number20
JournalJournal of Translational Medicine
Volume9
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 10 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Optical Nerve Detection by Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy for Feedback Controlled Oral and Maxillofacial Laser Surgery'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this