Novel ultrasonic vibration-assisted electrosurgical cutting system for minimizing tissue adhesion and thermal injury

Tissue adhesion and thermal injury bring great risk to electrosurgical cutting. The aim of this study is to propose a novel ultrasonic vibration-assisted (UV-A) electrosurgical cutting system to minimize tissue adhesion and thermal injury, and thereby improve the cutting performance. To this end, the ultrasonic vibration technology was integrated into electrosurgical cutting to develop a UV-A electrosurgical cutting system. Finite element (FE) simulations and experiments were performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed UV-A technology. An orthogonal UV-A electrosurgical cutting FE model was developed using the Comsol Multiphysics software. Subsequently, the effect of UV-A on the temperature distribution and thermal injury during the electrosurgical cutting process was investigated. The FE simulation results indicated that UV-A can reduce the temperature distribution and thermal injury area. The experimental results demonstrated that the temperature and injury depth under UV-A electrosurgical cutting were respectively decreased by approximately 40% and 30% compared with that without UV-A. The experimental results agreed well with the FE simulation results. Hence, it is concluded that UV-A electrosurgical cutting can be a novel promising and practical technology for reducing tissue adhesion and thermal injury.