In vivo imaging of human peripheral nerves using optical coherence tomography compared to histopathology slices

In this work we demonstrate the ability of in vivo optical coherence tomography (OCT) images to resolve all relevant structures of human peripheral nerves. Measurements have been acquired in more than 30 peripheral nerve surgeries using a commercial OCT system (Thorlabs Ganymede) with a hand probe, which can be directly placed on the nerve, covered by a sterile foil. The resulting 3D OCT images were processed using texture analysis to highlight structural tissue features of the nerve. A comparison of OCT images and corresponding histopathology slices was performed in order to confirm the visualization of the nerve's structures by OCT.