Optical coherence tomography for surgical margin evaluation of excised canine cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors

Currently, intraoperative tumor margin imaging is not routinely utilized in veterinary medicine. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows for real-time assessment of tissue morphology of 1-2 mm depth. The aims of this study were 1) to compare the histologic and OCT features of excised canine skin and subcutaneous specimens, and 2) to determine the diagnostic accuracy of OCT for surgical margin evaluation. The authors hypothesized that OCT imaging would correlate well with histopathology and that OCT would be sensitive for detection of incomplete margins. Eighty dogs were prospectively enrolled. Tumors were excised and the surgical margins were imaged using a spectral ...