Electrosurgery: CQM-simulation without volunteers

Abstract

Neutral electrodes (NE) are used in electro surgery for the return of the current to the ESU (electro- surgical unit); they are placed on the patient and monitored by a CQM (Contact Quality Monitoring) safety system that is incorporated in the ESU. In the paper the benefits and drawbacks of different CQM system are described. The Standard IEC 60601-2-2 requests volunteer experiments for NE testing; an alternative is the swaroTEST © testing device, that conducts both the temperature measurement under standard load according to the Standard and the simulation of CQM systems. The swaroTEST © thus replaces all volunteer experiments stipulated in the Standard. © 2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston.