Andres Schanzer (UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, USA) has hailed it “one of the most exciting changes” seen in imaging during the course of his career. Philips’ LumiGuide “human GPS” technology—which uses light reflected along an optical fibre inside a guidewire to generate three-dimensional (3D), high-resolution, colour images of devices inside a patient’s body in real-time powered by Fiber Optic RealShape (FORS)—is now available to specialised hospitals in Europe and the USA, the company has announced.
The LumiGuide system enables doctors to navigate through blood vessels during endovascular procedures using light, instead of X-ray, and was first used to treat patients in late 2023 at Maastricht University Medical Center in Maastricht, The Netherlands, closely followed by the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the USA.
LumiGuide initially has been made available to aortic centres of excellence that perform complex aortic repairs in Europe and the USA, a Philips press release states. The radiation-free technology enables physicians to reduce their reliance on X-ray during complex aortic procedures that can take significantly more time, resulting in a higher radiation dose for patients and clinicians. LumiGuide can be used to see devices including off-the-shelf catheters from any angle and in multiple views, the company adds.
Following a limited release of FORS to nine aortic centres, more than 900 patients have undergone procedures using the technology, with one site conducting a historic cohort comparison showing a 37% reduction in complex aortic procedure time, and a 56% reduction in radiation exposure compared to X-ray.
As detailed in a presentation at the 2023 VEITHsymposium in New York City, USA, last November by Joost van Herwaarden (University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands), the Limited Edition FORS technology—US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 501k-cleared in 2020—saw more than 800 completed cases by October of last year. The newly released LumiGuide includes workflow enhancements such as artificial intelligence (AI)-based automatic registration, along with visualisation of a wider array of catheters, van Herwaarden pointed out
Geert Willem Schurink, from Maastricht University Medical Center, who performed the first procedure with LumiGuide, said: “This artificial intelligence-based semi-automatic registration is very quick and accurate, even in the presence of stent grafts. Especially, if there is a need to re-register the device being guided in the patient’s body during the procedure, it is extremely helpful.”
