A novel image fusion approach for visual enhancement of facial vessels in surgical filler injections

In the absence of visual perception of the subcutaneous blood vessels, the performance of facial filling procedures may result in serious complications, such as blindness, cerebral infarction, and potentially fatal outcomes. In order to improve the visibility of facial vessels to ensure the filler injection procedure safe, this paper reports an efficient physical-based image fusion approach that combines simultaneously captured visible and near-infrared (NIR) images to produce vessel-highlighted effects. The enhancement of vessels visibility involves applying a customized sharpening filter to the invisible NIR image prior to merging it with the color facial image. The quantitative and subjective assessments of the fusion images indicate that the suggested approach is capable of efficiently reproducing a clear representation of blood vessels and realistically preserving their color and structural texture. Therefore, this new approach may be utilized to improve the efficiency and accuracy in locating or marking facial blood vessels and enhance the injection safety and precision of surgical filler injections.