Implantable sensor for blood flow monitoring after transplant surgery.

A limited number of techniques are employed in clinical medicine for regional tissue perfusion assessment. These methods are marginally effective and are not well suited for implantation due to the inability to miniaturize the associated technologies. Consequently, no standardized techniques exist for real-time, continuous monitoring of organ perfusion following transplantation. In this paper, a brief overview of the relevant clinical techniques employed for regional tissue perfusion assessment is given with particular emphasis on post-surgical monitoring of transplanted organs. The ideal characteristics for a perfusion monitoring system are discussed and the development of a new, completely implanted local tissue monitoring system is summarized. <I>In vivo</I> and <I>in vitro</I> data are presented that establish the efficacy of this new technology, which is a photonics-based sensor system uniquely suited for continuous tissue monitoring and real-time data reporting. The suitablity of this sensor technology for miniaturization, which enables implantation for monitoring localized tissue perfusion, is discussed.