screw or like for compression clamping about the blade and providing for electrical contact to the contact pads fig1 illustrates a plan view of a capacitive electro cautery blade 400 where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described an electrical to mechanical transducer such as an ultrasonic transducer 420 is affixed to the blade and includes two contact pads 422 and 424 for supplying power from an alternating current source to the transducer 420 contact pad 424 electrically and mechanically connects to the contact pad 401 the transducer 420 vibrates at a frequency determined by the power supply and at an amplitude which provides a cavitation effect at the selected frequency the high frequency vibration of the blade prevents adherence of debris to the blade 400 during a surgical procedure the transducer 420 can be powered independently or may be driven by the same power source used for energizing the blade fig1 illustrates a plan view of a resistive electro cautery blade 500 including a sharpened edge 502 a first contact pad area 504 a layer of insulation 506 on the conductive base but exposing the cutting edge 502 and a wrap around exposed metal surface 508 including a second contact pad 510 deposited on or affixed to the layer 506 the resistive blade is similar to that type of blade described previously in fig1.