Apparatus and method for surgical instrument with integral automated tissue classifier

Abstract

A method and apparatus is described for optically scanning a field of view, the field of view including at least part of an organ as exposed during surgery, and for identifying and classifying areas of tumor within the field of view. The apparatus obtains a spectrum at each pixel of the field of view, and classifies pixels with a kNN-type or neural network classifier previously trained on samples of tumor and organ classified by a pathologist. Embodiments use statistical parameters extracted from each pixel and neighboring pixels. Results are displayed as a color-encoded map of tissue types to the surgeon. In variations, the apparatus provides light at one or more fluorescence stimulus wavelengths and measures the fluorescence light spectrum emitted from tissue corresponding to each stimulus wavelength. The measured emitted fluorescence light spectra are further used by the classifier to identify tissue types in the field of view.