Study On The Adhesion Behavior Of Porcine Tissues Onto Electrodes Of Electrosurgical Unit In Pure Cut Mode

Electrosurgical unit is an energy instrument used in surgery. It is applied to cutting tissue and hemostasis using specific high-frequency current through centrally heated, volatile burst cutting, and cautery hemostasis. Obviously electrosurgical unit has significant advantages in clinic compared to conventional scalpel. However, carbide tissues could adhere to the surface of electrode during the process of operations, which might lead to the failure of surgery, and influence the patients with postoperative infection and recovery of patients. Therefore, study on the surface adhesion behavior of the electrodes is of great significance. The results would be helpful to understand the adhesion behavior of biological tissues upon electrodes, and then provide valuable insights into the optimization design and clinical operation of electrosurgical unit.Five types of porcine tissues, muscle tissue, adipose tissue, mixture of adipose and muscle tissues, skin tissue, and liver tissue, were cut in pure cut mode using a electrosurgical unit. The adhesion behaviors of different porcine tissues onto electrodes were investigated by light microscope and digital camera after cutting tests. Moreover, the effect of cutting way on the adhesion behavior of tissues onto electrodes were studied. The morphology and chemical composition of adhesion tissues, crystalline structure of electrodes were examined using SEM, EDX, XRD and FTIR. Main conclusions were drawn as follows:(1) The surface morphologies of the electrodes had significant difference among different tissues in pure cut mode. When muscle tissue being cut, both yellow eschar and flocculent muscle tissue were observed on the surface of electrode. Some grease accompanied with a little yellow eschar appeared on the surface of electrode when adipose tissue was cut. For the mixture of adipose and muscle tissues, both yellow eschar and grease were observed on the surface of electrode. For the skin tissue, some glutinous black eschar appeared on the surface of electrode. Some black eschar accompanied with a lot of granular liver tissue appeared on the surface of electrode when liver tissue was cut. It seems that under same cutting condition, the surface adhesion behavior of electrodes is closely associated with the content of water, protein and lipid in biological tissue being cut.(2) The adhesion behavior of tissue onto electrodes surface was found to be closely associated with the cutting way in pure cut mode. Some black eschar appeared on the surface of electrode when the electrode did not touch the tissue directly. When the electrode touched the tissue, both yellow eschar and flocculent muscle tissue were found, the yellow eschar appeared on the ahead of the electrode and the end of the electrode respectively. The carbon content of black eschar was higher than that of yellow eschar. The bonding strength of black eschar to electrode was stronger than that of yellow eschar. That is, black eschar should be hard to be cleaned.(3) There was no significant differnce in the crystalline structure of electrode before and after cutting. Three elements C, P and K, were found in the eschar which was hard to be cleaned.