February 6, 2012 — UNC urologic surgeons Mathew Raynor, MD, and Michael Woods, MD, recently completed the first surgeries in the Triangle area to utilize a new near-infrared fluorescence imaging system that allows surgeons to capture real-time images of kidney tissue and surrounding blood vessels.
This technique involves injecting the kidney with a unique florescence dye that is activated by near-infrared light. Tissue images and surrounding blood vessels illuminated by the special dye are then viewed through a special 3-D high-definition camera attached to one of the four arms of a da Vinci Si surgical robot.
This new technology allows Raynor, Woods, and other UNC surgeons to better differentiate healthy tissue from cancerous tissue in the kidney, which should help reduce damage to healthy parts of the kidney and healing times.