First-Ever Technology Makes Blood Translucent During Surgery

No matter the discipline or scale, bleeding is a regular part of any surgery and can create several challenges. In operating room imaging, seeing through blood in real-time during a surgery has been a long-sought-after tool, considered not just difficult, but impossible, and with current microscopes, fundamentally unachievable. While traditional systems can't see through blood, the first-ever technology to make blood translucent during surgery now overcomes the challenge of blood obscuring vision in the OR.

Ocutrx Technologies (Irvine, CA, USA) has unveiled a major surgical innovation: the ability to render blood translucent in real time during surgery. This patent-pending advancement enables surgeons to see through pooled blood without the need for suction or irrigation—a world first. The technology, called HemoLucence, will be a feature of the OR-Bot 3D Surgical Microscope System, which is scheduled to enter clinical trials in 2025 or 2026. The HemoLucence technology is powered by Ocutrx's proprietary algorithmic AI and digital engine, which is integrated into the OR-Bot system. The technology utilizes digital volumetric reconstruction and advanced de-scattering algorithms to visualize obscured anatomy under the blood. The HemoLucence technology overcomes blood opacity through advanced computational physics. The technology uses advanced math and physics to understand how light behaves when it passes through areas filled with blood. Although it works well from a single viewpoint, it achieves more accurate results by collecting images from different angles. This helps it distinguish between light being absorbed by blood and light being scattered by red blood cells.

Behind the scenes, new, advanced algorithms employ sophisticated statistical methods and neural networks through proprietary techniques to extract detailed images of tissue structure and texture, even in areas where blood would normally obstruct the view. The ability to render blood as transparent will provide a level of visualization not previously possible in any field of surgery. In tests, the system successfully visualized through three millimeters, approximately one-quarter inch, of whole human blood, which includes all major blood components. In further tests, the company expects to be able to visualize under at least half an inch of blood.

“While traditional systems can't see through blood, our OR-Bot uses AI-driven algorithms to cut through the scatter and reconstruct a clear 3D view of what's underneath, including vessels, nerves, bleed sites, and even tumors,” said Jordan Boss, Chief R&D Officer and Director of the Ocutrx Genius Labs. “This breakthrough transforms surgical visibility and precision."

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