Surgical cutting instrument

Claim 1

A surgical instrument adapted to be coupled to a source of electrical power for cauterizing tissue which is moist and electrically conductive due to the presence of physiological fluid and for simultaneous hemostasis thereof, the instrument comprising: a blade, a cutting edge formed integrally with said blade along an edge thereof for incising tissue, and at least one pair of electrically-conductive electrodes disposed in the vicinity of the cutting edge in spaced relation to each other and adapted to be electrically coupled to the source of power, each electrode formed as an electrically conductive film surface on the blade surface including a common current carrying member evenly spaced from the cutting edge and integral transverse elongated narrow fingers extending therefrom being relatively closely interdigitated with fingers of another of said electrodes, a distal end of each of said fingers for an electrode being located on the same blade surface as the common current carrying member for the other electrode to conduct electrical power along a plurality of electrical current paths transversely from one finger to an immediately adjacent interdigitated finger for directly heating the tissue along the cutting edge in response to the electrical power applied thereto; and connection means on said instrument providing electrical connections to said electrodes for supplying the electrical power thereto.

Claim 5

A method of effecting simultaneous cauterization and resulting hemostasis in tissue comprising the steps of: contacting the tissue with a tissue cauterizing means; impressing a voltage from about 20 to about 80 volts across the cauterizing means; alternating the impressed voltage at a frequency from about 10 KHz to about 10 MHz; maintaining said impressed voltage below a threshold for arcing establishing an elevated temperature in tissue by conducting current only along a plurality of current paths located along said cauterizing means which are in contact with relatively moist tissue; dissipating between about 5 to 50 watts of average power in regions of the cauterizing means which are selectively conductive upon contact with moist tissue for the purpose of cauterizing said tissue and thereby producing hemostasis.

Claim 6

A method of effecting simultaneous cauterization and resulting hemostasis in tissue comprising the steps of: contacting the tissue with a tissue cauterizing means; impressing a voltage from about 20 to about 80 volts across the cauterizing means; alternating the impressed voltage at a frequency from about 10 KHz to about 10 MHz; maintaining said impressed voltage below a threshold for arcing establishing an elevated temperature in tissue by conducting current only along a plurality of current paths located along said cauterizing means which are in contact with relatively moist tissue; dissipating between about 5 to 50 watts of average power in regions of the cauterizing means which are selectively conductive upon contact with moist tissue for the purpose of cauterizing said tissue and thereby producing hemostasis.