TRAM Infrared imaging

TRAM (transverse abdominal muscle flap) reconstruction is a surgical method for breast reconstruction from the person's own abdominal tissue. In this project we are researching one of the benefits that infrared imaging could offer to surgeons - a way to observe blood circulation in the transplant:

Note: All the pictures in this document are pseudo-colored.

Personnel

Aimo Karonen

Laboratory Engineer Aimo Karonen from Helsinki Institute of Technology has proposed the methods used within this project, and generally lead it.

Jarmo Alander

Prof J. Alander, acting professor of Production Automation, University of Vaasa, has provided lots of ideas and led the design of "Irisvision", a software package for manipulating IR images.

Sirpa Asko-Seljavaara

Sirpa Asko-Seljavaara, professor of Surgery, from Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland, has applied the methods. Many other surgeons have also actively been involved with the project, Asko Salmi and Eeva Zetterman for example.

Antti Nurminen and Virve Leinonen

Antti and Virve, students at Helsinki university of Tech. have researched the visualization of the IR images, using mainly different pseudo-colouring methods.

Some starting points to other IR applications:

• infrared astronomy and astrophysics
• geology
• meteorology
• medical practice
• physics
• material development
• nondestructive evaluation