Philips Launches LumiGuide for Light-Guided Navigation in Vascular Procedures

February 22, 2024—Philips announced the introduction of its LumiGuide. Powered by the company’s Fiber Optic RealShape (FORS) technology, LumiGuide uses light instead of x-ray to navigate through blood vessels. LumiGuide will be made available first to major aortic centers of excellence that perform complex aortic repairs in the United States and Europe.

In late 2023, LumiGuide was used to treat patients for the first time at Maastricht University Medical Center in Maastricht, the Netherlands, then at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Birmingham, Alabama.

After a limited release to nine aortic centers, > 900 patients have undergone procedures using FORS technology.

“It’s one of the most exciting changes that we’ve seen with imaging certainly throughout my career,” commented Andres Schanzer, MD, a vascular surgeon at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Dr. Schanzer led a single-center study of FORS guidance in complex endovascular aortic repair procedures. The investigators conducted a historic cohort comparison that showed a 37% reduction in procedure time and a 56% reduction in radiation exposure (dose area product) with FORS guidance versus x-ray in complex endovascular aortic repair. The findings were published by Eric J. Finnesgard, MD, et al in Journal of Vascular Surgery (2023;73:975-981).

According to Philips, LumiGuide uses light reflected along an optical fiber inside a guidewire to generate three-dimensional (3D), high-resolution, color images of devices (including off-the-shelf catheters) inside a patient’s body in real time, from any angle, and in multiple views.

With the launch of LumiGuide, Philips plans to enable more devices that can be guided by LumiGuide beyond aortic procedures.

Atul Gupta, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Image Guided Therapy and Precision Diagnosis at Philips and a practicing interventional radiologist, added, “If we can see more, we can proceed more quickly and more confidently. In effect, LumiGuide is a 3D, human global positioning system powered by light.”

LumiGuide is Philips’ second-generation solution using FORS and works exclusively with the company’s compatible interventional systems, such as Azurion.

Building on insights, data, and clinical feedback from the first-generation devices used at the nine centers, LumiGuide includes new time-saving features including artificial intelligence (AI)–based recognition to register the guidewire quickly and efficiently, helping increase accuracy while speeding up procedure time. Doctors only need to confirm the wire’s registration.

Professor Geert Willem Schurink, MD, a vascular surgeon at Maastricht University Medical Center, performed the first surgical procedure with LumiGuide.

Prof. Schurink stated in Philips’ press release, “This AI-based semiautomatic registration is very quick and accurate, even in the presence of stent grafts. Especially, if there is a need to reregister the device being guided in the patient’s body during the procedure, it is extremely helpful.”

LumiGuide will enable Philips and clinical partners to gather more clinical data on the performance at existing sites in preparation of making the solution available globally, stated the company.