A Novel Electrode Arrangement for Bipolar Electrosurgical Instruments to Reduce Thermal Spread and Tissue Adhesion: A Proof-of-Concept Study

Bipolar electrosurgical instruments have been used in many medical procedures due to their advantages of restrained heated region. Standard bipolar forceps, one of the most used bipolar instruments, consist of two jaws serving as two electrodes that can apply high-frequency current to heat tissue and perform hemostasis. However, the thermal spread and tissue adhesion problems hinder the standard bipolar forceps' safety and efficacy. To address these problems, this paper proposes a novel electrode arrangement, where each jaw of the bipolar forceps is divided into two separated sides. The left sides of the upper and lower jaws serve as the active electrodes, while the other sides serve as the return electrodes. In this way, the current passing through the peripheral tissue is limited. The hemostasis efficacy of the proposed design is improved by creating chamfer structures on the electrodes to enlarge the tissue contact area for improved heating. With the proposed design, the thermal spread and tissue adhesion are greatly reduced. The thermal spread range is 83.6% less than that of standard electrode arrangement. The design concept, finite-element model analysis, and experimental verifications are elaborated. The proposed design is promising to be applied in novel bipolar instruments.