Characterization of Optical Coherence Tomography Images for Colon Lesion Differentiation under Deep Learning

(1) Background: Clinicians demand new tools for early diagnosis and improved detection of colon lesions that are vital for patient prognosis. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows microscopical inspection of tissue and might serve as an optical biopsy method that could lead to in-situ diagnosis and treatment decisions; (2) Methods: A database of murine (rat) healthy, hyperplastic and neoplastic colonic samples with more than 94,000 images was acquired. A methodology that includes a data augmentation processing strategy and a deep learning model for automatic classification (benign vs. malignant) of OCT images is presented and validated over this dataset. Comparative evaluation is performed both over individual B-scan images and C-scan volumes; (3) Results: A model was trained and evaluated with the proposed methodology using six different data splits to present statistically significant results. Considering this, 0.9695 (±0.0141) sensitivity and 0.8094 (±0.1524) specificity were obtained when diagnosis was performed over B-scan images. On the other hand, 0.9821 (±0.0197) sensitivity and 0.7865 (±0.205) specificity were achieved when diagnosis was made considering all the images in the whole C-scan volume; (4) Conclusions: The proposed methodology based on deep learning showed great potential for the automatic characterization of colon polyps and future development of the optical biopsy paradigm.

Iatrogenic Bowel Injuries During Gynaecological Surgery: A Case Report and Literature Review

Iatrogenic lesions of the small and large intestine as a result of gynaecological surgeries are accompanied with severe morbidity and mortality. Delayed diagnosis results in septic shock and multiorgan failure. The authors describe the clinical course of an iatrogenic sigmoid colon lesion on a 70-year-old patient with ovarian malignancy. They present an overview of the incidence, risk factors, diagnosis and treatment of these complications. Forensic consequences of iatrogenic intestinal lesions have an impact on the professional life of the surgeon. The best option is the prevention of these complications, which includes the experience of the surgeon and the use of the guidelines.