The Development of Forceps-Type Microwave Tissue Coagulator for Surgical Operation

In this paper, a new type of surgical device for the coagulation and scission of biological tissues, such as blood vessels, using microwave energy is proposed. In addition, the effectiveness of the device for tissue coagulation is evaluated using a numerical analysis and an ex vivo experiment with swine liver tissue. In the numerical analysis, the coagulating capability of the device is evaluated by calculating the temperature distribution inside of the tissue grasped with the device. Microwave energy absorbed by the grasped tissue is used as a heat source for the bioheat transfer equation. In the ex vivo experiment, a prototype of the proposed device is used. The results of these investigations indicate that the proposed device has sufficient coagulating capability of the biological tissue. Moreover, for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed device in a more realistic condition, an in vivo experiment with the swine tissue has been conducted. In this experiment, venous hemorrhage at the surgical site is stopped using the prototype. As a result, the effectiveness of the proposed device has been confirmed by a surgeon.