New camera for burns victims `shows blood flow` in skin
Baku, July 26 (AZERTAC). A Swiss company has developed a camera which shows how blood is circulating through the skin in real-time.
The camera is designed to help assess the extent and severity of burns.
The device has been trialled by burn specialists and reconstructive surgeons at CHUV University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Clinical data from the trial is being presented at the 14th European Burns Association Congress in the Hague on Wednesday.
The machine uses what is called "laser Doppler imaging" and has been developed by Aimago, a start-up company based at the Swiss university, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.
The device is connected to a flexible arm and is placed over the burn area with the camera facing the burn. On the other side of the machine is a video screen on which colour variations show differences in the intensity of blood circulation.
"Red means high blood flow, blue means low blood flow," Michael Friedrich of Aimago said. "This information (the specialist) can use to see whether the burnt tissue still has blood supply or not.
"If the tissue has no blood supply it cannot recover, it`s going to die so you need to do skin grafting. However, if the skin is perfused (ie blood is still flowing through it), then it`s going to heal spontaneously without scarring."
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