Electrosurgical system energy source

• US 9,788,885 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2016
• Issued: 10/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cilag Gmbh International (Johnson & Johnson)
• Original Assignee: Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. (Johnson & Johnson)
• Inventors: Long, Gary L., Bakos, Gregory J., Plescia, David N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tejani, Ankit D
• Application Number:
  US15/046,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20160166311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 607 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/1206 Generators therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/1492 having a flexible, catheter-like structure, e.g. for heart ablation A61B18/1477 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00613 Irreversible electroporation reversible electroporation A61N1/327
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00791 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00815 measured by a thermistor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00982 combined with or comprising means for visual or photographic inspections inside the body, e.g. endoscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/126 bipolar

Abstract

An energy source for use with an electrosurgical system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the energy source includes a power supply, one or more capacitors coupled to the power supply, and a switching component coupled to the one or more capacitors. The switching component is configured to output pulses of a biphasic waveform. The pulses are capable of treating undesired tissue by inducing a change in voltage potential across cell membranes of a plurality of cells in the undesired tissue to promote non-thermal cell death in the plurality of cells. The pulses are also capable of treating the undesired tissue with no or minimal muscle contractions in patient tissue within reach of the biphasic waveform during treatment of the undesired tissue.

Claims

1. An energy source for use with an electrosurgical system, comprising:

a variable voltage power supply;

at least one capacitor charged by the variable voltage power supply; and

a switching amplifier receiving energy from the at least one capacitor, wherein the switching amplifier is configured to output pulses of a biphasic radio frequency (RF) waveform, wherein the pulses are capable of treating targeted tissue of a patient by inducing non-thermal cell death in the targeted tissue, and wherein the pulses cause no or minimal contraction in muscular tissue of the patient within reach of the biphasic RF waveform during treatment of the targeted tissue.

2. The energy source of claim 1, wherein the switching amplifier is a full bridge amplifier having a first phase of operation and a second phase of operation, wherein the full bridge amplifier is configured to output a positive voltage during the first phase of operation, and a negative voltage during the second phase of operation, and wherein the full bridge amplifier is configured to alternate between the first phase of operation and the second phase of operation.

3. The energy source of claim 1, wherein the switching amplifier includes at least four switching legs, and wherein each switching leg comprises at least one switching element and at least one drive circuit to control the at least one switching element.

4. The energy source of claim 3, further comprising a drive logic to drive the drive circuits of at least two of the switching legs simultaneously during a first phase of operation and to drive the drive circuits of at least two other switching legs simultaneously during a second phase of operation.

5. The energy source of claim 1, further comprising an isolating transformer having an energy input side and an energy output side, wherein the energy input side receives energy from the switching amplifier, and wherein the isolating transformer is configured to minimize induction of low frequency energy from the energy input side to the energy output side.

6. The energy source of claim 1, further comprising at least one blocking capacitor configured to remove low frequency energy from the output of the switching amplifier.

7. The energy source of claim 1, further comprising a current monitoring member to ensure current amounts delivered to the switching amplifier remain below a predetermined maximum.

8. The energy source of claim 1, wherein the biphasic RF waveform operates at a fundamental frequency of about 330 KHz to about 900 KHz and comprises a peak-to-peak voltage amplitude of about 200 VAC to about 12,000 VAC.

9. The energy source of claim 1, wherein each pulse comprises a pulse duration of about 5 μ

s to about 100 μ

s delivered at a pulse frequency of about 1 Hz to about 500 Hz.

10. The energy source of claim 1, wherein the switching amplifier is configured to output the pulses in a plurality of bursts, wherein each burst comprises a plurality of pulses, and wherein each burst is separated by a time period sufficient to maintain the targeted tissue below a maximum temperature.

11. The energy source of claim 10, wherein the switching amplifier is configured to repeat the plurality of bursts at a burst frequency of about 0.02 Hz to about 500 Hz.

12. The energy source of claim 1, wherein the biphasic radio frequency (RF) waveform comprises a first phase and a second phase separated by an anti-overlap time.

13. An energy source for use with an electrosurgical system, comprising:

a variable voltage power supply;

a plurality of capacitors electrically coupled to the power supply; and

a switching amplifier electrically coupled to the plurality of capacitors, wherein the switching amplifier is configured to output pulses of a biphasic alternating current (AC) waveform, wherein the pulses are operative to treat targeted tissue by inducing a change in voltage potential across cell membranes of the targeted tissue, and wherein the pulses cause no or minimal contraction in muscular tissue of the targeted tissue during treatment of the targeted tissue.

14. The energy source of claim 13, wherein the switching amplifier includes a plurality of switching legs, wherein each switching leg comprises at least one bipolar field effect transistor (BiFET), and wherein each BiFET is associated with a drive circuit to control its respective BiFET.

15. The energy source of claim 14, further comprising a drive logic configured to drive the drive circuits of at least two switching legs simultaneously during a first phase of operation and to drive the drive circuits of at least two other switching legs simultaneously during a second phase of operation.

16. The energy source of claim 13, further comprising an isolating transformer comprising an energy input side and an energy output side, wherein the isolating transformer is configured to increase a first voltage associated with a biphasic AC waveform received from the switching amplifier at the energy input side to a second voltage at the energy output side.

17. The energy source of claim 13, further comprising at least one blocking capacitor configured to block low frequency energy such that only high frequency energy is outputted to the targeted tissue.

18. The energy source of claim 13, further comprising:

an input-output board operable to control energy output by the power supply;

at least one thermistor; and

at least one thermal sensing circuit operable to report a temperature to the input-output board, wherein the input-output board is operative to adjust the energy output to maintain a predetermined temperature.

19. The energy source of claim 13, wherein the biphasic AC waveform comprises a first phase and a second phase separated by an anti-overlap time.

20. An energy source for use with an electrosurgical system, comprising:

a power supply;

one or more capacitors coupled to the power supply; and

a switching component coupled to the one or more capacitors, wherein the switching component is configured to output pulses of a biphasic waveform, and wherein the pulses are capable of treating undesired tissue by inducing a change in voltage potential across cell membranes of a plurality of cells in the undesired tissue to promote non-thermal cell death in the plurality of cells while causing no or minimal contraction in muscular tissue in electrical contact with the undesired tissue during treatment of the undesired tissue.

21. The energy source of claim 20, wherein the switching component comprises a first phase of operation and a second phase of operation, wherein the switching component is configured to output a positive voltage during the first phase of operation and a negative voltage during the second phase of operation, and wherein the switching component is configured to alternate between the first phase of operation and the second phase of operation.

22. The energy source of claim 20, wherein the switching component is configured to output the pulses of the biphasic waveform at a radio frequency.

23. The energy source of claim 20, wherein the biphasic waveform operates at a fundamental frequency of about 330 KHz to about 900 KHz and comprises a peak-to-peak voltage amplitude of about 200 VAC to about 12,000 VAC.

24. The energy source of claim 20, wherein the biphasic waveform comprises a first phase and a second phase separated by an anti-overlap time.