Electrosurgical instrument
First Claim
1. An electrosurgical instrument comprisinga support member;
- at least one electrode mounted on said support member, said electrode comprising (a) a substrate consisting essentially of a material having a figure of merit of at least 0.15 at room temperature where said figure of merit is the product of the thermal conductivity, the heat capacity and the density of said material in the metric system, and (b) an electrically resistive coating disposed on said substrate, the volume resistivity of said coating extending from about 10-4 to 108 Ω
-cm.ridged heat radiating means in thermal contact with said electrode for radiating heat into the medium surrounding said electrode, said heat radiating means being covered by a ridged electrically insulative cover andmeans for connecting said electrode to a source of electrosurgical energy.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electrosurgical instrument comprising a support member; at least one electrode mounted on the support, the electrode consisting essentially of a material having a figure of merit of at least 0.15 at room temperature where the figure of merit is the product of the thermal conductivity, the heat capacity and the density of the material in the metric system; and a heat sink in thermal contact with the electrode for removal of heat therefrom. A carbon coating for the electrode is also disclosed where the coating may be formed by different techniques including thermal decomposition of certain carbohydrate containing materials, the latter method providing a porous carbon coating particularly suited for expediting the starting of the instrument. Also disclosed are a number of heat sinks for effecting removal of heat from the electrode. Further disclosed is a monolithic blade made from carbon.
1033 Citations
47 Claims
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1. An electrosurgical instrument comprising
a support member; -
at least one electrode mounted on said support member, said electrode comprising (a) a substrate consisting essentially of a material having a figure of merit of at least 0.15 at room temperature where said figure of merit is the product of the thermal conductivity, the heat capacity and the density of said material in the metric system, and (b) an electrically resistive coating disposed on said substrate, the volume resistivity of said coating extending from about 10-4 to 108 Ω
-cm.ridged heat radiating means in thermal contact with said electrode for radiating heat into the medium surrounding said electrode, said heat radiating means being covered by a ridged electrically insulative cover and means for connecting said electrode to a source of electrosurgical energy. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An electrode for an electrosurgical instrument comprising (a) a substrate consisting essentially of a material having a figure of merit of at least 0.15 at room temperature where said figure of merit is the product of the thermal conductivity, the heat capacity and the density of said material in the metric system, and (b) an electrically resistive coating disposed on said substrate, the volume resistivity of said coating extending from about 10-4 to 108 Ω
- -cm;
means for connecting said substrate to a source of electrosurgical energy, and means for attaching said substrate to an electrosurgical instrument. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
- -cm;
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19. An electrosurgical instrument comprising
a support member; -
at least one electrode mounted on support member, said electrode comprising (a) a substrate consisting essentially of a material having a figure of merit of at least 0.15 at room temperature where said figure of merit is the product of the thermal conductivity, the heat capacity and the density of said material in the metric system, and (b) an electrically resistive coating disposed on said substrate, the volume resistivity of said coating extending from about 10-4 to 108 Ω
-cm; andmeans for connecting said electrode to a source of electrosurgical energy. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. An electrosurgical instrument comprising
a support member; -
at least one electrode mounted on said support member where said electrode includes an electrically resistive coating disposed on a stainless steel substrate, the volume resistivity of said coating extending from about 1031 4 to 108 Ω
-cm andmeans for connecting said electrode to a source of electrosurgical energy. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. An electrosurgical instrument comprising
a support member; -
at least one blade mounted on said support member, said blade having forward and rearward ends and comprising a material having a figure of merit of at least 0.15 at room temperature where said figure of merit is the product of the thermal conductivity, the heat capacity and the density of said material in the metric system where the cross section through a first plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said blade has a first semi-elliptical configuration on one side of a second plane extending along said longitudinal axis of the blade from the forward to rearward ends thereof and a second semi-elliptical configuration on the opposite side of said second plane where the two major radii of said second semi-elliptical configuration are less than those of said first semi-elliptical configuration; and means for connecting said blade to a source of electrosurgical energy.
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47. An electrosurgical instrument comprising
a support member; -
at least one blade mounted on said support member, said blade having forward and rearward ends and comprising a material having a figure of merit of at least 0.15 at room temperature where said figure of merit is the product of the thermal conductivity, the heat capacity and the density of said material in the metric system where the cross section through a first plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said blade has a first semi-elliptical configuration on one side of a second plane extending along said longitudinal axis of the blade from the forward to rearward ends thereof and a second semi-elliptical configuration on the opposite side of said second plane where said first and second semi-elliptical configurations are substantially equal in size and are offset with respect to one another along said second plane; and means for connecting said blade to a source of electrosurgical energy.
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Specification