Activ Surgical completes first case with ActivSight

Listen to this article

Activ Surgical announced that it has completed its first case with ActivSight Intelligent Light, a module that can be attached to laparoscopic and robotic systems to provide enhanced visualization during surgery. 

The surgery was performed on December 22, 2022, at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Matthew Kalady, MD, FASCARS, the Cheif of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery at the Wexner Medical Center, performed a laparoscopic left colectomy, which is the surgical removal of the left side of the larger bowel, typically performed because of colon cancer. Dr. Kalady performed the surgery using the colorectal AI mode within ActivSight. 

“While using one of ActivSight’s intraoperative visual overlays, the dye-free ActivPerfusion Mode, I was able to clearly see key critical structures in the surgical site and tissue perfusion in real-time,” Dr. Kalady said in a release. “With the press of a button, the colorectal AI mode was enabled, removing distractions of background signals from non-bowel tissue and clearly focusing on perfusion to the colon. There was a clear difference in visualization during AI mode.”

In ActivSight’s ActivPerfusion mode, the system uses laser speckle technology on the entire view to show blood perfusion. When used with the device’s colorectal AI mode, the system isolates the ActivPerfusion display to the targeted issue, which, in the case of the surgery performed by Dr. Kalady was the colon. This makes it easier for the surgeon to focus on the targeted tissue, and not become distracted by seeing blood perfusion in the entire scene. 

“With this procedure, we have shown that we can deploy proprietary models that have been trained with our datasets, annotated with our experts and our pipeline, and developed with our team and partners,” Activ Surgical CEO Shah-Bugaj said. “We are collaborating with global technology leaders to assist us with optimizing storage, integration, and inference. When all of this advanced tech is installed in the OR, our novel sensing brings it to life, and the results are incredible.”

Activ Surgical is currently conducting a clinical study with the Wexner Medical Center. The study seeks to determine the utility and usability of ActivSight. 

Activ Sight was cleared by the FDA in 2021, and has been used in first-in-human/IRB studies. The module received CE Mark approval in 2022, allowing Activ Surgical to commercialize the enhanced imaging system across the European Union (EU).