The present invention generally relates to a cautery device and more particularly pertains to a battery operated removable tip cautery.
Many types of portable battery operated cautery instruments have been developed and used, one of which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,682. These battery operated cautery instruments are used on the basic principle that after each surgical use the entire instrument is disposed of. However, it has been found that the actual use life of such cauteries is much greater than the time required for a single surgical use so that the cautery could be used for other surgical proceedings if a way could be found to sterilize the instrument for additional surgical usage. Such sterilization generally requires autoclaving or other associated heat treating of the instrument which treatment has been found to destroy or damage the batteries in the instrument. Another means of sterilization is accomplished through the use of ethylene oxide gas. While this treatment does not damage the batteries in the instrument, small hospitals or health treatment facilities are not provided with the necessary gas treatment apparatus. Another problem inherent with the use of this type of gas treatment is that aluminum components cannot be used in the instrument due to the interaction of the gas and the aluminum which decreases the sterilization capability of the gas and builds up salt on the aluminum.