Compact sapphire fiber-optic probe for intraoperative analysis of microcirculation disorders

Microcirculation disorders and their consequences (hypoxia, ischemia, and subsequent tissue necrosis) are highly undesirable complications in clinical practice. Therefore, monitoring tissue conditions and detecting pathologies during surgical procedures is a crucial task in modern medicine. To address this challenge, this article presents a compact sapphire fiber probe based on the principle of spatially resolved diffuse reflectance analysis. This method enables the measurement of the effective attenuation coefficient of tissue and its temporal variations, thus allowing for intraoperative assessment of tissue state under conditions of impaired microcirculation. Due to the compact design of the probe, it can be used as an auxiliary tool fin a wide range of surgical procedures and diagnostic applications. The feasibility of the proposed probe for detecting microcirculation disorders was analyzed experimentally, using two types of samples – a liquid phantom based on a lipid emulsion and hemoglobin and muscle tissue ex vivo – with the inserted enzyme. The effect of the enzyme on hemoglobin and muscle tissue, which mimics the effect of circulatory disturbance, qualitatively demonstrated the effectiveness of the sapphire probe.