Assessment of Intraoperative Probe-based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy in Digestive and Endocrine Surgery: a Pilot Study

Intraoperative histological examination is a fundamental tool in surgery. Probe-based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy (pCLE) is a new imaging technique which enables real-time, microscope-resolution imaging, currently used in endoscopy. This pilot study aims to evaluate pCLE in surgical setting. The objective is the depiction of histological rendering of normal and pathological tissues through pCLE. Feasibility of real-time diagnosis will also be assessed. All surgical conditions usually necessitating frozen section will be investigated. A total of 30 patients, with various pathology of the thyroid / parathyroid, stomach, esophagus, pancreas, adrenal, colon / small intestine, liver will be included. Diagnostic criteria will be defined by a surgeon - pathologist team and further validated by retrospective analysis of the video sequences in comparison to conventional histology slides. The data will be used to create an image bank of reference optical biopsy images. The study will allow to point out the surgical conditions in which pCLE is the most effective and reliable and could eventually replace the frozen section technique.