Development of hybrid surgical device combining microwave and radio frequency current

Various types of surgical devices using microwave energy for the treatment of bleeding from the organs and blood vessels are investigated and reported. For smooth progress of the surgery, it is desirable that devices have functions of tissue coagulation and tissue resection. Generally, microwave energy is used for tissue coagulation and unsuitable for tissue resection because of the mild heating effect. Here, devices using joule heating due to radio frequency current are employed for tissue resections. In this study, a coagulation and cutting device with the microwave energy which has a good coagulation characteristic and radio frequency current which has a good dissection characteristic is proposed. In this paper, the heating characteristic of the designed microwave heating antenna loaded with the coagulation and cutting device was evaluated using finite-difference time-domain method and bioheat transfer equation. As a result, the designed antenna heats the grasped blood vessel more than 60 °C around the heating antenna.