Electrical Characteristics of the Sparks Produced by Electrosurgical Devices

Abstract

The electrical characteristics of the sparks produced between the active electrode and the biological tissue during electrosurgical procedures have been experimentally investigated. The results have shown that the minimum voltage required to initiate a spark depends on the applied voltage polarity resulting in electrosurgical voltage asymmetry. This voltage asymmetry is capable of producing dc levels that can result in tissue electrostimulation or direct current burns as discussed in this paper. The experimental setup and the conditions, under which the results have been obtained, including the techniques used to improve experimental reproducibility, are reported in detail.

A simple approach to calculate active power of electrosurgical units

“…The authors believe that the electrosurgical equipment certification process must necessarily consider such process in order to detect problems of asymmetry, DC burns and potential electrical stimulation hazards (Schneider and Abatti, 2008). Finally, the herein described method is sufficiently general and offers other possibilities of application, being not restricted to the use in electrosurgical units.…”

“…This experiment was performed by cutting chayote (Sechium edule, SW) (Grande, 2014;Schneider and Abatti, 2008) and swine flesh (Sus domesticus) with energy application through an electrosurgical device built at Federal University of Technology -Paraná (UTFPR) with non-switched output power stage (Bernardi, 2007;Schneider, 2004;Schneider andAbatti, 2005, 2008). The device was able to deliver a quasi-sinusoidal power signal to the tissue.…”

“…Data was captured by an Agilent Technologies  4-channel oscilloscope model MSO6034A, 300MHz with 2 GSPS and ADC converter (AD converter with 12-bit resolution), with an Agilent 10073c probe (500MHz) for measuring current and a TPI P250 probe 100:1 (250MHz) for measuring voltage. The experiment setup was the same used by Schneider and Abatti (2008). Table 3 shows a set of experiments that were carried out where chayote (experiments from 22 to 55) and swine flesh (experiments from 56 to 69) received power through the electrosurgical equipment for ablation.…”

“…In order to certify commercial ESUs, tests are performed using ohmic contact in resistive loads (Associação…, 2013). Although sparking phenomena are not considered in this case they are the ultimate responsible for spectral noise, dc components, dc burns and electrostimulation (Schneider and Abatti, 2008); the herein presented methodology does take that into account as discussed in the 'Practical results' section.…”

“…The electrosurgical equipment certification process, according to the applicable industry standard (Associação…, 2013), measures the active powerdefined as the power that does useful work -using a resistive probe in ohmic contact, i.e., disregarding the sparking process and consequently the spectra and electrical asymmetries of the actual electrosurgical process (Schneider and Abatti, 2008).…”