Plastic Surgery Group of Memphis‘ very own Dr. Lou Adams was recently featured in Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, to discuss a cutting edge new technology that is changing the way breast cancer patients are treated.

The SPY Elite Fluorescence Imaging System provides surgeons with something similar to a glow-in-the-dark road map as they perform reconstructive operations.

“Just as colors can be used to depict storm severity on radar images, the SPY system uses different hues to distinguish healthy tissue from dying tissue. That way, it dramatically reduces the likelihood of post-operative complications, such as infection, which inflate medical costs an average of nearly $23,000 per patient, according to one study.

‘The more surgeries, the more it costs,’ said Dr. Lou Adams, a member of The Plastic Surgery Group of Memphis who often operates at Baptist Women’s.

Although it could be used in a variety of operations, the SPY system is especially beneficial in the field of breast construction surgery, Adams said. It’s a field that has become increasingly important over the past 40 years as breast cancer surgeries improved in precision and technique, allowing more women to undergo reconstruction rather than use external prosthesis.”

The full article can be found here.