Clean margin assessment tool

A method for use in examining a tissue, the method comprising:

• providing a tissue portion excised from a subject's body;
• examining said excised tissue portion and establishing a clean-margin of healthy tissue around an abnormal tissue within said excised tissue portion, said establishing comprising:
• providing a device for characterizing a tissue, said device comprising a housing configured to be enclosed by said tissue and having a tissue-contacting surface, and at least one tissue-type sensor mounted on the housing and configured for characterizing a type of said tissue, and
• providing a mechanism configured to attach said tissue to the housing so that the tissue-contacting surface is in contact with an exposed surface of the excised tissue portion;
• surrounding or enclosing the device by said tissue;
• characterizing all segments of a surface of said tissue;
• recording margin status of said segments;
• identifying whether said tissue segments correspond to clean margin;
• and
• removing in case said tissue segments include one or more segments that do not correspond to clean margin, further excising from the body only tissue segments which are adjacent or correspond to tissue segments which were not identified as clean margin until the margin status of all the characterized tissue segments in excised tissue is clean.

A device for characterizing an exposed tissue surface, said device comprises:

• a housing having a tissue-contacting surface configured to, when being brought in contact with the exposed tissue surface, be enclosed by a portion of the exposed tissue surface portion;
• at least one tissue-type sensor, mounted on the housing so as to extend substantially to said tissue-contacting surface to be exposed to the exposed tissue surface, said at least one tissue-type sensor being configured and operable for characterizing a tissue segment of said exposed tissue surface to determine and record the tissue segment margin status;
• and
• a mechanism configured to attach said tissue surface to the housing.

A device for holding a tissue surface in a tissue characterization procedure, the device comprising:

• a housing having a tissue-contacting surface and a sensor array frame structure carrying one or more tissue-type sensors, and
• a plurality of holes on said tissue contacting surface of said housing, said holes being arranged in groups of at least three holes/group, each group surrounding one of said one or more sensors;
• and
• a channel of fluid communication between said holes and a vacuum source.