Moreno Oyervides, Aldo LuisDiaz Ojeda, LuisBonilla Manrique, Óscar ElíasBonastre-Julia, JorgeLargo Aramburu, CarlotaAcedo Gallardo, PabloMartín Mateos, Pedro2024-01-262024-01-262023-10-05Moreno-Oyervides, A., Díaz-Ojeda, L., Bonilla-Manrique, O.E., Bonastre-Juliá, J., Largo-Aramburu, C., Acedo, P., Martín-Mateos, P. (2023) Design and testing of an optical instrument for skin flap monitoring. Sci Rep 13, 16778 (10p.). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-44017-62045-2322https://hdl.handle.net/10016/39589Flap procedures are complex surgical tools widely used in reconstructive surgery. Flap ischemia is one of the most dangerous complications, both during the surgical procedure and during the patient's recovery, which can quickly lead to tissue necrosis (flap loss) with serious medical and psychological consequences. Today, bedside clinical assessment remains the gold standard for flap monitoring, but timely detection of flap ischemia is a difficult and challenging task, so auxiliary techniques are needed to support flap monitoring. Here we present a prototype of a new optical diagnostic tool, based on visible light absorption in diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, for non-invasive, continuous, real-time monitoring of flaps. The proposed approach is assessed by monitoring flap ischemic scenarios induced on pig animal models. The results obtained support that the proposed approach has great potential, not only for prompt detection of ischemia (in seconds), but also for clear differentiation between an arterial occlusion and venous occlusion.10eng© The Author(s) 2023Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 EspañaFlap proceduresReconstructive surgeryFlap lossFlap ischemiaOptical diagnostic toolVisible light absorptionDiffuse reflectance spectroscopyresearch articleElectrónicahttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-44017-6open access110Scientific Reports13, 16778AR/0000034019