The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 08, 2013
Filed:
Jul. 29, 2010
Timothy J. Bahney, Boulder, CO (US);
Timothy J. Bahney, Boulder, CO (US);
Covidien AG, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, CH;
Abstract
An electrosurgical system for sealing vessels using capacitive (RF) dielectric heating and a method thereof are provided. The system includes an electrosurgical instrument having an end effector with parallel plate electrodes that will clamp onto a vessel and maintain a specified gap distance; however, the electrodes will be coated with a non-conductive dielectric material. Such an end effector will ensure that direct conduction between the electrodes does not occur through tissue or fluids and effectively creates a parallel plate capacitor with a dielectric, e.g., tissue and coating, in between the plates. The electrosurgical instrument will be activated with an AC signal at a specified RF frequency, e.g., a Debye resonance frequency, via an electrosurgical generator. An effective AC current will flow through the tissue and cause heating due to fictional losses from rotating polar molecules in the tissue.