The surgical intelligent knife distinguishes normal, borderline and malignant gynaecological tissues using rapid evaporative ionisation mass spectrometry (REIMS).

Background: Survival from ovarian cancer (OC) is improved with surgery, but surgery can be complex and tumour identification, especially for borderline ovarian tumours (BOT), is challenging. The Rapid Evaporative Ionisation Mass Spectrometric (REIMS) technique reports tissue histology in real-time by analysing aerosolised tissue during electrosurgical dissection.

Methods: Aerosol produced during diathermy of tissues was sampled with the REIMS interface.