Electrically heated surgical cutting instrument
First Claim
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1. A surgical instrument for cutting tissue with simultaneous hemostasis, the instrument comprising:
- a substrate of electrically insulating material in the form of a blade having a cutting edge, having disposed thereon in the vicinity of the cutting edge an electrically heatable element of electrically conductive material exhibiting a resistance characteristic which varies as a function of the temperature, the heatable element being divided at selected locations into a plurality of independently heatable sections which form segments along said cutting edge and connection means for each segment providing electrical connection to each of said segments at the selected locations, means for independently supplying electrical power thereto along said connection means for maintaining the temperature of each of said segments at substantially constant selected value, said connection means including n+1 conductors for the heatable element wherein n is the number of segments, such that, the connection means for each pair of adjacent segments is shared by a common one of the n+1 conductors;
logic means for coupling said means for supplying electrical power to each of said segments over said connection means independent of power supplied to an adjacent segment, such that, each may be heated independently, said logic means including exclusive OR logic for each segment, responsive to a reference polarity signal corresponding to the polarity of the power supplied at one of said connection means for the segment for producing selected outputs, means responsively coupled to the logic means for providing power to the segment in opposite electrical sense to the reference polarity signal for the segment or the same electrical sense to inhibit power thereto.
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Abstract
A surgical cutting instrument includes an electrically heated cutting edge and a power supply system for maintaining the cutting edge at a constant high temperature for sterilizing the blade, cutting tissue and cauterizing the incised tissue to reduce hemorage from the cut surfaces of the tissues (hemostasis).
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. A surgical instrument for cutting tissue with simultaneous hemostasis, the instrument comprising:
- a substrate of electrically insulating material in the form of a blade having a cutting edge, having disposed thereon in the vicinity of the cutting edge an electrically heatable element of electrically conductive material exhibiting a resistance characteristic which varies as a function of the temperature, the heatable element being divided at selected locations into a plurality of independently heatable sections which form segments along said cutting edge and connection means for each segment providing electrical connection to each of said segments at the selected locations, means for independently supplying electrical power thereto along said connection means for maintaining the temperature of each of said segments at substantially constant selected value, said connection means including n+1 conductors for the heatable element wherein n is the number of segments, such that, the connection means for each pair of adjacent segments is shared by a common one of the n+1 conductors;
logic means for coupling said means for supplying electrical power to each of said segments over said connection means independent of power supplied to an adjacent segment, such that, each may be heated independently, said logic means including exclusive OR logic for each segment, responsive to a reference polarity signal corresponding to the polarity of the power supplied at one of said connection means for the segment for producing selected outputs, means responsively coupled to the logic means for providing power to the segment in opposite electrical sense to the reference polarity signal for the segment or the same electrical sense to inhibit power thereto. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
- a substrate of electrically insulating material in the form of a blade having a cutting edge, having disposed thereon in the vicinity of the cutting edge an electrically heatable element of electrically conductive material exhibiting a resistance characteristic which varies as a function of the temperature, the heatable element being divided at selected locations into a plurality of independently heatable sections which form segments along said cutting edge and connection means for each segment providing electrical connection to each of said segments at the selected locations, means for independently supplying electrical power thereto along said connection means for maintaining the temperature of each of said segments at substantially constant selected value, said connection means including n+1 conductors for the heatable element wherein n is the number of segments, such that, the connection means for each pair of adjacent segments is shared by a common one of the n+1 conductors;
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10. A control system for a cutting instrument wherein a substrate of electrically insulating material in the form of a blade having a cutting edge has disposed thereon in the vicinity of the cutting edge an electrically heatable element of electrically conductive material exhibiting a resistance characteristic which varies as a function of the temperature, the element being divided at selected locations into a plurality of independently heatable sections which form segments along said cutting edge and connection means for each segment providing electrical connection to each of said segments at the selected locations, means coupled to the connection means for independently supplying electrical power to each segment for maintaining the temperature thereof at substantially constant selected value, said connection means including n+1 conductors for the heatable element wherein n is the number of segments, such that, the connection means for each pair of adjacent segments is shared by a common one of the n+1 conductors;
- the control system comprising;
logic means for selectively governing power to each of said segments over said connection means independent of power supplied to an adjacent segment such that each may be heated independently, said logic means including exclusive OR logic for each segment, responsively coupled to a reference polarity signal established at one of said connection means for each segment for producing selected outputs, switch means responsively coupled to the selected outputs of the logic means and the means for supplying power for gating power to the segment in opposite electrical sense to the reference polarity signal established at said one of said connection means for the segment or in the same electrical sense to respectively enable or inhibit power thereto.
- the control system comprising;
Specification