Direct Administration of Nerve-Specific Contrast to Improve Nerve Sparing Radical Prostatectomy.

ABSTRACT: Nerve damage remains a major morbidity following nerve sparing radical prostatectomy, significantly affecting quality of life post-surgery. Nerve-specific fluorescence guided surgery offers a potential solution by enhancing nerve visualization intraoperatively. However, the prostate is highly innervated and only the cavernous nerve structures require preservation to maintain continence and potency. Systemic administration of a nerve-specific fluorophore would lower nerve signal to background ratio (SBR) in vital nerve structures, making them difficult to distinguish from all nervous tissue in the pelvic region. A direct administration methodology to enable selective nerve highlighting for enhanced nerve SBR in a specific nerve structure has been developed herein. The direct administration

SUBMITTER: Barth CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5327635 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature