The Food and Drug Administration has approved a surgery-imaging device developed by the Madison-based OnLume, according to an article in the Wisconsin State Journal, and surgeons at UW Hospital could be the first to use it.
In a surgical setting, OnLume’s fluorescence-guided surgery system, which features a customized camera at the end of a long arm, helps surgeons better see tissue during operations. The device is used with an FDA-approved green dye, which displays fluorescent images on a monitor and helps color code tissue so that surgeons can distinguish between normal and abnormal tissue.
The company, which has raised $1.8 million in grants and angel funding, also is working to apply the device to cancer cells, helping surgeons identify “residual” cancer that otherwise would be invisible.
