Innovative use of hyperspectral imaging in reconstructive oral and maxillofacial surgery

Medicine has increasingly evolved in the direction of minimally to noninvasive diagnostic methods in recent years. These advancements are particularly prominent in the technical developments pertaining to tissue perfusion monitoring in microvascular grafts and in diagnostic methods for early detection on changes to the oral mucosa and the definition of resection margins. Hyperspectral imaging is a relatively new but promising technique in biomedical diagnostics. This spectroscopic technique enables contactless, radiation-free, and noninvasive measurement of light that is reemitted after interaction with the tissue of interest and detected by a sensor after spectral separation. Via subsequent computer-assisted data processing, physiologic and diagnostic characteristics can be extracted for clinical use. This enables a detailed analysis of physiologic and diagnostic characteristics valuable for clinical application and has proven superior to clinical evaluation for measurement of tissue perfusion and oxygenation. Due to the enormous progress in AI, a highly optimized applicability of this promising data source can be expected in the future, which will enable more precise, safer, and more conservative diagnostics and treatment in modern oral and maxillofacial surgery.