Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Exposing a healthy wound bed for skin grafting is an important step during burn surgery to ensure graft take and maintain good functional outcomes. Currently, the removal of non-viable tissue in the burn wound bed during excision is determined by expert clinician judgment. Using a porcine model of tangential burn excision, we investigated the effectiveness of an intraoperative multispectral imaging device combined with artificial intelligence to aid clinician judgment for the excision of non-viable tissue. ⋯ This study provides insight into the feasibility of image-guided burn excision, its effect on surgeon decision making, and suggests further investigation of a real-time imaging system for burn surgery could reduce over-excision of burn wounds.