Time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy for buried flaps monitoring

Oxygenation monitoring of deep biological tissues with a bedside non-invasive method is still a crucial issue that is not resolved in routine clinics. It is particularly important in several major clinical applications with significant societal and financial implications such as the management of severe traumatic brain injury or stroke, the monitoring of hemodynamic parameters during or after birth or the post-operative monitoring after breast reconstruction surgery. However, the chances of recovery are directly proportional to the rapidity of diagnosis and subsequent remedial treatment. We propose an optical Time-Resolved probe, which monitor noninvasively the level of oxygenation in deep tissues. Our solution combines a measurement device, a stethoscope-type probe and an analysis software that provides biomarkers of tissue oxygenation. It is validated on a cohort of 15 pigs with the detection and identification of all arterial and venous events induced by the experiments’ protocol. We implement two analysis methods– one is real-time and aim at detecting and identifying the occlusion; it is based on a Time-Resolved windowing approach. The other post-processes the data and focuses on the quantification purpose; it is based on a tomographic approach.