Surgery – Instruments – Electrical application
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-02
2001-10-23
Peffley, Michael (Department: 3739)
Surgery
Instruments
Electrical application
C606S037000, C606S042000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06306131
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electric medical apparatus, and more particularly to an electric medical apparatus which supplies a high-frequency electric current to a living tissue to use heat generated by the high-frequency electric current so as to treat the living tissue such that the mode is switched between, for example, incision and coagulation.
The electric medical apparatus supplies a high-frequency electric current to a living tissue to perform an incising treatment or a coagulating treatment or the like. The apparatus has been employed in a usual surgical operation. An apparatus is known among the electric medical apparatuses of a type which measures the impedance of a living tissue to control the output of the apparatus in accordance with a result of the measurement.
A technique has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,671 which measures a minimum value of the impedance of the organism to use a function of the minimum impedance to determine the impedance at a moment of time at which the coagulation of the organism is completed. In accordance with a load curve of the system, a control unit causes optimum electric power to be output. Thus, the coagulation operation of the electric medical apparatus can satisfactorily be performed.
If the output for performing the incising operation is first used to excise the living tissue which is performed by the electric medical apparatus, coagulation cannot sufficiently be completed to prevent bleeding.
The technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,671 enables an operator to perform another operation only when the operator switches the output switch to perform another operation after the coagulating treatment has automatically be completed. When an incising treatment is performed after the coagulating operation, the operator must perform the other burdensome operation.
A triple-pole probe serving as a forceps, which is capable of performing coagulating and incising operations, has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,780. The foregoing triple-pole probe must, however, perform a complicated operation because a selection switch provided for the probe must be operated to switch the electrode.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electric medical apparatus which is capable of automatically performing an incising treatment after a coagulating treatment has been performed without a necessity for an operator to perform another operation when the incising treatment is performed after the coagulating operation has been completed.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric medical apparatus having a treatment device which is brought into contact with a living tissue and which is supplied with high-frequency electric power from a high-frequency power supply unit so as to coagulate or excise the living tissue, the electric medical apparatus comprising: coagulation output means for supplying an output for performing the coagulating treatment to the treatment device; incision output means for supplying an output for performing the incising treatment to the treatment device; and control means for switching the output from the high-frequency power supply unit to the incision output which is supplied by the incision output means after the coagulating treatment has been performed by the coagulation output means.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric medical apparatus having a treatment device which is brought into contact with a living tissue and which is supplied with high-frequency electric power from a high-frequency power supply unit so as to coagulate or excise the living tissue, the electric medical apparatus comprising: coagulation output means for supplying an output for performing the coagulating treatment to the treatment device; incision output means for supplying an output for performing the incising treatment to the treatment device; and control means for switching the output from the high-frequency power supply unit from the coagulation output means to the incision output means in accordance with at least either or a rate of change in the impedance of the living tissue and the impedance.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric medical apparatus having a treatment device which is brought into contact with a living tissue and which is supplied with high-frequency electric power from a high-frequency power supply unit so as to coagulate or excise the living tissue, the electric medical apparatus comprising: coagulation output means for supplying an output for performing the coagulating treatment to the treatment device; incision output means for supplying an output for performing the incising treatment to the treatment device; and control means for switching the output to the output for performing the incising treatment from the incision output means after the coagulating treatment has been completed by the coagulation output means and causing standby to be put.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric medical apparatus having a treatment device which is brought into contact with a living tissue and which is supplied with high-frequency electric power from a high-frequency power supply unit so as to coagulate or excise the living tissue, the electric medical apparatus comprising: measuring means for measuring the impedance of the living tissue; and control means for detecting a point of change when at least either of a rate of change in the impedance or the impedance is larger than a predetermined value or a constant-value multiple of a minimum value of the impedance to control at least any one of change in an output waveform, change in a load characteristic and output voltage.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric medical apparatus having a treatment device which is brought into contact with a living tissue and which is supplied with high-frequency electric power from a high-frequency power supply unit so as to coagulate or excise the living tissue, the electric medical apparatus comprising: measuring means for measuring the impedance of the living tissue; and control means for detecting a point of change when at least either of a rate of change in the impedance or the impedance is larger than a predetermined value or a constant-value multiple of a minimum value of the impedance to reduce the output and control at least any one of change in an output waveform, change in a load characteristic and output voltage when a signal has been received afterwards.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric medical apparatus having a treatment device which is brought into contact with a living tissue and which is supplied with high-frequency electric power from a high-frequency power supply unit so as to coagulate or excise the living tissue, the electric medical apparatus comprising: forceps recognizing means to which a forceps having three or more electrodes can be connected and which is capable of recognizing a connected forceps is the forceps having three or more electrodes; measuring means for measuring the impedance of the living tissue; and control means for detecting a point of change in accordance with an impedance detected by the measuring means, switching an output for performing a coagulating treatment to an output for performing an incising treatment when the point of change has been detected and switching the electrodes from which output is made from a combination of electrodes for the coagulating treatment to a combination of electrodes for the incising treatment.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a high-frequency oscillator incorporating means for calculating impedance from output current and voltage when a high-frequency output is performed, the high-frequency oscillator comprising: control means for comparing an initial impedance detected when an
Hareyama Norihiko
Hatta Shinji
Sekino Naomi
Yamauchi Kouji
Frishauf, Holtz Goodman, Langer & Chick, P.C.
Olympus Optical Co,. Ltd.
Peffley Michael
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