Especially in critically ill patients, microcirculatory changes are associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Therefore, in intensive care and emergency medicine, it is particularly important to monitor tissue perfusion and edema formation in addition to macrocirculation to reduce the negative effects of hemodynamic incoherence.
Here, hyperspectral imaging is a promising method to monitor bedside changes in microcirculation, oxygenation and water content of the skin. Problems such as drug dose errors, circulatory disturbances, pulmonary complications or inefficient oxygen therapies could thus be detected at an early stage. The tissue water index, as a parameter of tissue or intestinal edema, can, for example, allow indirect conclusions to be drawn about the anesthesiological control of intraoperative volume therapy.
This example shows very impressively the ability of hyperspectral imaging to detect microcirculatory/edematous changes in critically ill patients at the bedside. Thus, therapy can be adjusted at an early stage.