title: Light-guided localization within tissue using biocompatible surgical suture fiber as an optical waveguide.
abstract: In breast-conserving surgery, an optical wire is a useful surgical guiding tool to optically locate small lesions within the breast tissue. However, the use of a long silica glass fiber as the optical wire can be burdensome to patients because of its stiffness and nonbiocompatibility. We investigate the use of a biocompatible fiber for light localization in tissue. A surgical suture with a diameter of 400 μm and a few centimeters long is employed as the biocompatible optical waveguide to transport the visible laser light to the inner tissue site. Optical location is confirmed with glow ball-like red laser illumination at the tip of the suture embedded within a fresh chicken breast tissue. Effective optical power coupling to the suture is made by using a double-cladding fiber coupler. From this preliminary result, we realize practical light localization with biopolymer waveguides.
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Department of Bioengineering, 3720 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States.
authors.forename: Woo June
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, School of Information and Communications, 261 Cheomdan-gwagiro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kwan Seob
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, School of Information and Communications, 261 Cheomdan-gwagiro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Byeong Ha
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D004867:Equipment Design; D008954:Models, Biological; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000601:surgery; D055100:Optical Fibers; D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D013537:Sutures