| Summary: | Neurosurgeries to remove pituitary tumors using the endonasal, transsphenoidal approach often incur the risk of patient death caused by injury to the carotid arteries hidden by surrounding sphenoid bone. To avoid this risk, we propose intraoperative photoacoustic vessel visualization with an optical fiber attached to the surgical tool and an external ultrasound transducer placed on the temple. Vessel detection accuracy is limited by acoustic propagation properties, which were investigated with k-Wave simulations. In a two-layer model of temporal bone (3200 m/s sound speed, 1-4 mm thickness) and surrounding tissues, the localization error was ≤2 mm in the tranducer's axial dimension, while temporal bone curvature further degraded target localization. Phantom experiments revealed that multiple image targets (e.g. sphenoid bone and vessels) can be visualized, particularly with coherence-based beamforming, to determine tool-to-vessel proximity despite expected localization errors. In addition, the potential flexibility of the fiber position relative to the transducer and vessel was elucidated.
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