Bristol Hospital now has the technology to perform reconstructive surgery for patients who have undergone a mastectomy.

The procedure was made possible after a generous donation by the Beekley Family Foundation, which allowed the hospital in December to buy a $125,000 machine that helps ensure a successful reconstructive surgery โ€” the SPY Elite System. The hospitalย on Thursdayย held a small recognition event on behalf of Beekley, where officials talked about the benefits of the new piece of equipment.

Dr. Vinod V. Pathy, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Bristol Hospital, said SPY Elite allows him to see how healthy the skin is โ€” something that cannot be done with the naked eye โ€” before performing post-mastectomy flap reconstructive surgery.

โ€œItโ€™s good at predicting how healthy the tissue will be post operation,โ€ Pathy said, adding that โ€œbad tissueโ€ can be removed before reconstruction to ensure proper healing and recovery.

The machine works by examining the tissue after a dye has been injected into the skin, allowing doctors to see the red blood cells in real-time with the use of a camera. This feeds into two monitors, which provide both color and black and white video, so surgeons can see blood flow and the difference in discoloration โ€” both of which are important in predicting the viability of tissue for wound healing.

โ€œIt almost looks like a Doppler radar,โ€ said Pathy, who also has a practice in Old Lyme, the Northeast Plastic Surgery Center.