A new collaboration between medical device manufacturer Arthrex Vet Systems and AURA Veterinary, a veterinary speciality hospital in Guildford, “will transform animal care” through near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging in veterinary oncology and soft tissue surgery.
NIRF imaging, the companies state, offers significant benefits and patient outcomes via real-time information on a variety of common oncologic and soft tissue clinical problems: determining blood supply to the skin in reconstructive surgery; predicting intestinal viability; identifying the thoracic duct in chylothorax and intra-operative sentinel lymph node identification in cancer surgery.
Celebrating a new partnership (from left): Dr Jonathan Bray (AURA), Professor Nick Bacon (AURA), Mike Bellinger (Arthrex Vet Systems) and Dr Laurent Findji (AURA).
In addition, the team at AURA will research using fluorescent markers to specifically target animal tumour cells, a rapidly evolving area in human oncology, using NIRF to identify metastatic lymph nodes or cancer left behind after surgery.
Professor Nick Bacon, clinical director of AURA Veterinary and professor of Surgical Oncology at the University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine, says that NIRF “is available to all our patients at no extra cost as we look to improve outcome and welfare across a wide spectrum of diseases”. As a dedicated ‘Centre of Excellence’ for NIRF technology, AURA Veterinary is happy to host veterinary surgeons at their hospital in Guildford to observe surgical cases undergoing NIRF imaging.
For further details, contact Mike Bellinger on mike.bellinger@arthrex.co.uk or 07708 295989.
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