Demonstration of a laparoscopic structured-illumination three-dimensional imaging system for guiding reconstructive bowel anastomosis

This paper reports the development and system analysis of a laparoscopic system based on structured illumination technique capable of three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of porcine intestine during surgical anastomosis (connection of tubular structures). A calibration target is used to validate the system performance and results show a depth of field of 20 mm with an accuracy of 0.008 mm and precision of 0.25 mm. The imaging system is used to reconstruct a quantitative 3-D depth measurement of ex vivo porcine bowel tissues to mimic an end-to-end bowel anastomosis scenario. We demonstrate that the system can detect a suture in the tissue and map homogeneous surfaces of the intestine with different tissue pigments, affirming the feasibility for depth quantization for guiding and assisting medical diagnostic decisions in anastomosis surgery.