Data underlying the publication: Enhancing Intraoperative Tissue Identification: Investigating a Smart Electrosurgical Knife's Functionality During Electrosurgery

Detecting the cancerous growth margin and achieving a negative margin is one of the challenges that surgeons face during cancer procedures. A smart electrosurgical knife with integrated optical fibers has been designed previously to enable real-time use of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for intraoperative margin assessment. In this paper, the thermal effect of the electrosurgical knife on tissue sensing is investigated. Methods: Porcine tissues and phantoms were used to investigate the performance of the smart electrosurgical knife after electrosurgery. The fat-to-water content ratio (F/W-ratio) served as the discriminative parameter for distinguishing tissues and tissue mimicking phantoms with varying fat content. The F/W-ratio of tissues and phantoms was measured with the smart electrosurgical knife before and after 14 minutes of electrosurgery. Additionally, a layered porcine tissue and phantom were sliced and measured from top to bottom with the smart electrosurgical knife. Results: Mapping the thermal activity of the electrosurgical knife’s electrode during animal tissue electrosurgery revealed temperatures exceeding 400 °C. Electrosurgery for 14 minutes had no impact on the device’s accurate detection of the F/W-ratio. The smart electrosurgical knife enables real-time tissue detection and predicts the fat content of the next layer from 4 mm ahead. Conclusion: The design of the smart electrosurgical knife outlined in this paper demonstrates its potential utility for tissue detection during electrosurgery. Significance: In the future, the smart electrosurgical knife could be a valuable intraoperative margin assessment tool, aiding surgeons in detecting tumor borders and achieving negative margins.

在癌症手术过程中，识别癌性生长切缘并实现阴性切缘是外科医生面临的挑战之一。此前已有研究设计出一款集成光纤的智能电外科手术刀（smart electrosurgical knife），可实时利用漫反射光谱术（diffuse reflectance spectroscopy）开展术中切缘评估。本文针对该智能电外科手术刀对组织传感的热效应展开研究。
方法：本研究采用猪组织与组织体模，探究电外科手术后智能电外科手术刀的检测性能。以脂肪含水量比（fat-to-water content ratio，F/W比）作为判别参数，区分不同脂肪含量的组织与模拟组织的体模。分别在电外科手术前后，利用智能电外科手术刀测量组织与体模的F/W比。此外，将分层猪组织与体模剖切后，使用智能电外科手术刀自上而下进行检测。
结果：经测绘动物组织电外科手术过程中智能电外科手术刀电极的热活动可知，其温度超过400℃。14分钟的电外科手术未影响该设备对F/W比的准确检测。智能电外科手术刀可实现实时组织检测，并能提前4mm预测下一层组织的脂肪含量。
结论：本文所述的智能电外科手术刀设计，展现了其在电外科手术中用于组织检测的应用潜力。
意义：未来，该智能电外科手术刀有望成为一款极具价值的术中切缘评估工具，帮助外科医生识别肿瘤边界并实现阴性切缘。