PRESS RELEASE
Savannah, (GA, USA) – Fluoptics, a French company specialized in fluorescence guided surgery, is proud to announce the launch of Fluostick™, a small laser optical head for head and neck surgery and cardiac surgery, which completes the range of its Fluobeam® fluorescence imaging solutions.
The new product is presented for the first time at the World Molecular Imaging Congress 2013 held in Savannah (Georgia, USA) on September 18-21.
Fluostick™ detects and records fluorescence signals during surgical operations, to help detect lymph nodes, tumors, or characterize tissue perfusion. Yet this new product offers a different ergonomics as its distal end is about the size of a marker pen (34 x 24 mm), much smaller than the current Fluobeam® optical head.
Furthermore, Fluostick™ working distance (the distance between camera and patient) is much shorter (down to 5 centimeters), which facilitates its positioning relatively to the patient. Therefore, images have a greater resolution.
Fluostick® was designed to facilitate the imaging in regions which are usually more difficult to access, such as axillary lymph nodes and lymph nodes in head and neck surgery. The system has also generated a strong interest from cardiac surgeons who see it as an easier tool to image the heart from different planes.
“Surgical gestures are very different from one surgical field to the other, and even from one surgeon to the other,” says Philippe Rizo, scientific consultant for Fluoptics. “It is not possible to answer all the needs within a single system. The philosophy of the Fluostick™ is to add a new blade in our Swiss-knife technology for fluorescence guided surgery. Fluobeam® and Fluostick™ will be complementary to make fluorescence signal detection always easier and more straightforward for the surgeon, whatever the conditions.”
“Fluostick™ development is the result of close collaborations with surgeons. We believe ergonomy will be a key factor, together with technical performances, for the success of the technology,” adds Odile Allard, CEO of Fluoptics.
Fluoptics solutions for surgery are already used in several different hospitals in Europe and five clinical trials have started in different fields with Fluobeam®.
Fluostick® clinical indications include:
• Arterial blood flow
• Lymph node detection and lymphatic flow
• Identification of bile ducts
• Detection of liver tumors and hepatic metastases
• Cardiac and vascular surgery
• Plastic and reconstructive surgery
The system is CE marked and 510k FDA pending.
Fluobeam® has also been installed in more than 25 prestigious laboratories for preclinical research worldwide.
About Fluoptics
Founded in 2009, Fluoptics develops and markets innovative solutions in the fields of preclinical imaging and image-guided surgery. This technology has many applications, among others in oncology, for the detection and resection of tumours and metastasis, but also during surgery for lymph nodes detection, cardiovascular imaging, and liver research. The technology has been awarded many prizes and benefits from a portfolio of patents from Fluoptics’ research partners. Based in Grenoble, France, Fluoptics has 11 employees for a turnover of 610 k€ in 2012. For more information, click here: www.fluoptics.com
