Development of ultrasonically activated bending scalpel using a link mechanism

Ultrasonically activated scalpels are used clinically to provide hemostatic cutting in endoscopic surgery. To assist the physician during endoscopic surgery, we have developed an ultrasonically activated bending scalpel constructed of super elasticity alloy (SEA in short). We analyzed the vibration characteristics of the probe in the bending state by the finite element method. And the proposed active bending mechanism is prototyped. Moreover the vibration characteristics were measured to examine its effectiveness. Also, a cutting experiment was conducted. We demonstrate that ultrasonic vibration of the proposed scalpel is possible using a conventional vibration controller, since the change of the natural frequency due to the bend is negligible. In the prototyping, we realized the bending mechanism by using a linkage. The range of the bending angles varies from 0° to 60°.