Adhesion behavior of textured electrosurgical electrode in an electric cutting process

Abstract

Soft tissue adhesion on the electrosurgical electrode has been a major concern in clinical surgery. In order to improve the adhesion property of the electrode, micro-textures with different morphologies including micro-dimples, longitudinal micro-channels, and lateral micro-channels were created on the electrode surface by laser surface texturing (LST). Electric cutting experiments were then performed to investigate the adhesion behavior of different electrodes. Experimental results showed that the textured electrode surfaces could reduce the soft tissue adhesion significantly due to the effect of air in micro-textures and the reduction of contact area between the electrode and the soft tissue. Moreover, the temperature distribution of the electric cutting process was simulated through COMSOL to verify the effect of different micro-textures on adhesion behavior. It was demonstrated that the better anti-adhesion property could be obtained at a large area density combined with lateral micro-channels.