Fluorescent Evaluation of Colorectal Anastamoses

Bowel removal is indicated for various types of colon and rectal disease, including colon cancer, rectal cancer, diverticulitis, and inflammatory bowel disease among others. Following removal of the diseased segment of bowel your surgeon will reconnect the two healthy ends to reconstruct a continuous bowel tube. If the bowel leaks it can become an extremely dangerous situation. The cause of leakage has many causes and is not well understood, but appears to be at least in part due to not having enough blood going to the bowel. There is currently no way to evaluate the blood supply to the bowel. The purpose of this study is to utilize a special camera to evaluate the blood supply of the bowel. This new system is called the Spy-scope. This system may assist surgeons in reducing the occurrence of leaks