Apparatus, systems and methods for determining tissue oxygenation

Abstract

A surgical instrument may be configured to sense a light re-emitting probe to resolve tissue oxygenation, the surgical instrument including: an optical emitter configured to excite the light re-emitting probe within an absorption band of the light re-emitting probe; an optical detector configured to receive the re-emitted light from the probe; and a signal processor configured to resolve the tissue oxygenation based on the received light. The surgical instrument can be a surgical stapler anvil or a flexible substrate having a tissue interfacing surface. Further, a monitoring device may be configured to map oxygenation of a tissue containing a light re-emitting probe, the monitoring device including: an optical emitter configured to excite the light re-emitting probe; at least one optical detector configured to receive the re-emitted light from the probe; and a signal processor that is configured to resolve the tissue oxygenation at multiple points to generate an oxygen map.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.