Electromagnetic emissions due to electrosurgery

Electrosurgery devices are an important part of surgical interventions in the modern medical service; however the benefits of using such technology are accompanied by side effects like electromagnetic pollution of the hospital environment. As a consequence, the maximum admitted levels of electric and magnetic fields for general public and occupational exposure could be exceeded in some cases and the risk of electromagnetic interference with medical devices rises while implementing electrosurgery in the operating room. In this paper we address the characterization of the electromagnetic emissions from an electro surgical device at different distances and determine the maximum field levels for different operating modes of the device with a monopolar scalpel. Also, the surgeon´s exposure while performing electrosurgery was determined to be much higher than occupational exposure limits imposed by international standards.