About this Research Topic

Background

Light has a dual nature of being a photon and an electromagnetic wave. Important properties of light include transport of energy, dispersion into spectrum, refraction, interference, diffraction, and polarization. Surgeons mainly rely on the visual information gained by the retinal detection of the light from the surgical light sources, such as overhead, endoscope or microscope lamps, reflected from the patient tissues. Surgical imaging technologies that use advanced properties of light such as fluorescence to guide surgical procedures are becoming increasingly popular and effective. Advanced light imaging technologies augment the surgeon’s or interventionist’s vision by providing a magnified microscopic view of the surgical details and tissue properties down to the cellular level, including highlighting specific molecular signals of tissue, identifying hidden lesions under the tissue surface, showing blood flow through vessels and much more. Research techniques that employ fundamental light properties beyond the limits of human eye for surgical aids and interventional diagnostics have grown substantially and have significant potential to shape the future of surgery and medical treatment. Frontiers in Surgery would serve as the platform for a collection of articles to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art update and systematization of these cutting edge technologies, accumulate evidence for their utility, and to present original recent advancements in this field.


This Research Topic welcomes surgeons, medical interventionists, pathologists, and researchers to publish their experience and research to improve intraoperative diagnosis, surgical guidance, workflow and outcomes, and other medical diagnostic or treatment interventions by using advanced fluorescence techniques, including specific fluorescence labeling, Raman spectroscopy, and reflectance microscopy for in vivo disease detection. This Research Topic will seek to communicate and advance these new techniques in an intersection of surgical, medical, and research specialties.

Keywords: Fluorescence guided surgery, endoscopy, endomicroscopy, reflectance, Raman spectroscopy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Frequently asked questions

• What is a Research Topic?

  Frontiers' Research Topics are collaborative hubs built around an emerging theme.Defined, managed, and led by renowned researchers, they bring communities together around a shared area of interest to stimulate collaboration and innovation.

  Unlike section journals, which serve established specialty communities, Research Topics are pioneer hubs, responding to the evolving scientific landscape and catering to new communities.

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  The goal of Frontiers' publishing program is to empower research communities to actively steer the course of scientific publishing. Our program was implemented as a three-part unit with fixed field journals, flexible specialty sections, and dynamically emerging Research Topics, connecting communities of different sizes and maturity.

  Research Topics originate from the scientific community. Many of our Research Topics are suggested by existing editorial board members who have identified critical challenges or areas of interest in their field.

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  You will choose your team of co-editors, curate a list of potential authors, send calls for participation and oversee the peer review process, accepting or recommending rejection for each manuscript submitted.

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