Method and system for programming and controlling an electrosurgical generator system

• US 8,080,008 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2007
• Issued: 12/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Covidien AG (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Covidien AG (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Wham, Robert H., Sturm, Thomas A., Faulkner, William D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Peffley, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): GOOD, SAMANTHA M
• Application Number:
  US11/901,652
• Publication Number:
  US 20080015564A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,554 Days
• Field of Search: 606/34, 606 37- 40
• US Class Current: 606/38
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/1206 Generators therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00084 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00648 using more than one sensed parameter
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00702 Power or energy
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00773 Sensed parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00779 Power or energy
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00791 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00875 Resistance or impedance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00892 Voltage

Abstract

An electrosurgical generator system includes an electrical generator having an RF stage for outputting electrical energy having at least one waveform for performing an electrosurgical procedure. The system further includes at least one control module executable on at least one processor which controls at least one parameter of the outputted electrical energy and a configuration controller operably associated with the electrical generator which generates configuration data to configure the at least one control module to provide at least one modality of control of the outputted electrical energy based on the configuration data.

Claims

1. An electrosurgical generator system, comprising:

an electrical generator having an RF stage for outputting electrical energy having at least one waveform for performing an electrosurgical procedure;

at least one control module executable on at least one processor which controls at least one parameter of the outputted electrical energy, the at least one control module including an inner loop controller and an outer loop controller, the inner loop controller configured to compute a gain multiplier that is computed by taking an inverse of a voltage response corresponding to a sensed load impedance, the outer loop controller configured to control outer loop gain by multiplying the outer loop gain by the gain multiplier computed by the inner loop controller to stabilize overall gain of the electrosurgical generator despite variations in the sensed impedance; and

a configuration controller operably associated with the electrical generator which generates configuration data to configure the at least one control module to provide at least one modality of control of the outputted electrical energy based on the configuration data.

2. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 1, wherein the electrosurgical generator system further comprises a sensor module operably associated with the generator, the sensor module having at least one sensor for sensing at least one of electrical and physical properties related to the outputted electrosurgical energy and generating sensor data relating thereto.

3. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 2, wherein the at least one sensor is selected from the group consisting of current, phase shift, voltage, power, impedance, and temperature sensors.

4. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 2, wherein the:

outer loop controller generates a control signal in accordance with at least a first subset of the sensor data; and

the inner loop controller generates a setpoint control signal, the setpoint control signal being provided to the RF stage for controlling at least an amplitude of the outputted electrical energy by the RF stage, wherein the setpoint control signal is generated based on at least the control signal generated by the outer loop controller and a second subset of the sensor data.

5. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 1, wherein the electrosurgical generator system further comprises a configuration sensor module operably associated with the generator having at least one sensor for sensing at least one property relating to at least one of a user action relating directly to operation of an electrosurgical instrument, and at least one of a physical or electrical property sensed in a field of the procedure, wherein the configuration sensor module generates at least one signal corresponding thereto.

6. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 2, wherein the electrosurgical generator system further comprises a high level RF algorithm module programmed therein which generates updated configuration data for the at least one control modules in response to sensor data and a time signal indicative of the amount of time lapsed during a procedure, the algorithm further providing updated configuration data to the at least one control modules for reconfiguring the respective control modules.

7. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 4, wherein the configuration data is provided to the inner loop controller, wherein the configuration data includes at least one of an algorithm selected from at least a sculpted current algorithm, a sculpted voltage algorithm and a sculpted power algorithm, pulse parameters for controlling a waveform pattern of the setpoint control signal, a gain curve providing predetermined gain multiplier values plotted versus predetermined impedance values, maximum limitation values for the setpoint control signal, a control curve providing target values plotted versus impedance values, predetermined impedance breakpoint values, and control algorithm parameters;

and wherein the configuration data is provided to the outer loop controller, wherein the configuration data includes at least one of a target curve providing target values plotted versus time values, a target slew rate for limiting the slew rate of the outer loop controller, a time multiplier for adjusting the target curve with respect to the time values, control algorithm parameters, threshold range values for the control signal generated by the outer loop controller, pulse parameters for pulsing the control signal, an outer loop algorithm selected from at least one of a temperature algorithm, a temperature limit algorithm, and an impedance algorithm, outer loop algorithm parameters, and a gain curve providing predetermined gain multiplier values plotted versus predetermined impedance values.

8. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 6, wherein the updated configuration data generated by the high level RF algorithm module includes at least one of an algorithm selection and algorithm specific data for adjusting at least one procedural algorithm.

9. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 4, wherein the outer loop controller includes an outer loop target generator for generating an outer loop target value based on at least one of a time signal indicative of a time lapse during the procedure and an outer loop target curve providing target values versus time values provided via the configuration data and an outer loop control module performing a control algorithm for generating the control signal based on at least the outer loop target value and the first subset of sensor data;

and wherein the inner loop controller includes an inner loop target generator for generating at least one of an inner loop target value based on at least one of the second subset of sensor data and an inner loop target curve providing target values versus impedance values provided via the configuration data and an inner loop control module performing a control algorithm for generating the setpoint control signal based on at least the inner loop target value and the second subset of sensor data.

10. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 1, further comprising a waveform controller operably associated with the generator for receiving configuration data from the configuration controller and controlling a waveform pattern of the electrosurgical energy generated by the RF stage.

11. The electrosurgical generator system as in claim 9, wherein each of the outer loop target generator, the outer loop control module, the inner loop target generator and the inner loop control module may be one of disabled or bypassed so that the electrosurgical generator may operate without the disabled or bypassed element.