Monitoring of Thermal Processes for Medical Applications Using Infrared Thermography

Abstract

Surgical interventions frequently involve the use of instruments that apply heat to tissue, e.g. to seal blood vessels. Controlling the temperature elevation created by these instruments is particularly important when operating in proximity to delicate anatomy, where the buildup of temperature can cause accidental injury and lead to permanent impairment or death. This thesis explores the use of infrared (IR) camera technology to provide thermal monitoring for two specific medical applications, i.e. bone drilling and blood vessel sealing. The technical contributions of this work include: (1) the creation of a miniature thermal stereo camera system intended to provide thermal monitoring during minimally-invasive surgical procedures; (2) the development of software to acquire and visualize the video stream produced by IR thermal cameras, based on the GigE Vision interface standard.