It is becoming more common to use heated surgical instruments, such as electrosurgical devices, during surgery because electrosurgical devices may provide benefits over traditional surgical devices. For example, some electrosurgical instruments have the ability to make precise incisions in tissue with limited blood loss. Because of their advantages, electrosurgical devices are used in dermatological, gynecological, cardiac, plastic, ocular, spine, ENT, maxillofacial, orthopedic, urological, neurological and general surgical procedures as well as certain dental procedures, just to name a few.
Electrosurgical devices may be used for cutting, repairing and/or removing tissue or other materials from a patient. To perform each of these procedures the electrosurgical device must heat the tissue or other material to a desired temperature. For example, for vascular endothelial welding a surgeon may use an electrosurgical device that heats to temperatures of about 58-62 degrees Centigrade, whereas, to make an incision a surgeon may have to use an electrosurgical device that heats to temperatures of about 200-400 degrees Centigrade or higher. If a surgeon is not able to control the temperature of the electrosurgical device during use, or the device cools too slowly after the device is no longer being activated, then undesired results may occur which may lead to an adverse outcome for the patient.
As surgical instruments become more advanced, they often have increased power demands which may cause heat to build-up in a surgical instrument. While it may be desirable to have a high temperature at a precise surgical site, such as the tip of an electrosurgical instrument, high temperatures may be undesirable elsewhere. For example, if the temperature of structures adjacent a tip of an electrosurgical instrument becomes too hot, those structures may damage and/or destroy tissue.
A surgical instrument may also dissipate heat into the surgical handpiece. High temperatures of a surgical handpiece may decrease the effectiveness of, or cause pain or discomfort to the surgeon. High heat of a handpiece may limit the acceptance of the instrument, or reduce the amount of time the surgical instrument may be put in use. Furthermore, undesirable heating may reduce the effectiveness of onboard electronics.
The undesired heating of the surgical instrument may be caused by heating of a surgical structure, heating of handpiece electronics and/or heat otherwise caused by operation of the surgical instrument. The heat may even become more critical because many surgical instruments are small with little room to effectively dissipate heat into the air.
Moreover, while it is desirable to have a surgical instrument that achieves adequate temperature for sealing, cutting, etc., it is often desirable to minimize the damage caused by the heat to anything but the precise location of the tissue being treated. Thus, while it may be desirable to maintain an electrosurgical device at a high temperature for a given procedure, tissue in the surgical field adjacent to the surgical site may be unnecessarily damaged by the exposure to the high temperature. Again this may lead to undesired results and an adverse outcome for the patient.
Therefore it would be desirable to cool a surgical instrument, such that adjacent structures, the handpiece and the electronics remain sufficiently cool to not adversely impact the performance of the surgical instrument and/or its ease of use. Such device may result in cooling of a surgical instrument both during use and when the surgical instrument is not being thermally activated. Additionally, it would be desirable to have a surgical instrument or related structure that minimized any collateral damage to tissue(s) adjacent to the surgical site.