Impedance Mediated Power Delivery for Electrosurgery

An electrosurgery method, comprising the steps of:

• applying energy to an individual's tissue with an electrosurgical appliance;
• monitoring tissue impedance;
• generating a signal indicative of said tissue impedance;
• providing a processor configured to determine when a threshold impedance is reached within a specific interval;
• said processor configured to apply a constant, predetermined level of energy to said individual's tissue after said threshold impedance is reached and to continue application of said constant, predetermined level of energy to said individual's tissue for a predetermined interval;
• and
• said processor configured to discontinue application of energy to said individual's tissue after completion of said predetermined interval.

An electrosurgery apparatus, comprising:

• an electrosurgical appliance for performing electrosurgery on an individual's tissue;
• a source of energy coupled to the electrosurgical appliance by a control circuit, said control circuit configured to adjust any of the current and voltage output from said source of energy and, thus, to adjust power output of said source of energy, said control circuit configured to adjust said power output of said source of energy up and/or down in steps and/or in a selected ramp;
• a sensor within or proximate to said electrosurgical appliance for monitoring an effect of said electrosurgical appliance on said individual's tissue and producing a tissue impedance signal therefrom;
• a processor coupled to receive said tissue impedance signal from said sensor;
• said processor operating under control of a program stored in a memory, said processor configured to adjust the output of said source of energy by issuing control signals to said source of energy, said processor configured to apply the signal from said sensor to said program and to adjust the energy supplied to said individual's tissue by said source of energy in real time in response to the signal generated by said sensor;
• and
• said processor configured to operate said source of energy to provide an adaptive power ramp by which a lower level of energy is initially supplied to the individual's tissue and the output of source of energy supplied to the individual's tissue is gradually increased to a higher level of energy, wherein said power ramp is provided over a predetermined interval during which impedance of the individual's tissue is monitored in real time and change in impedance over time is used to determine a slope of a next power ramp;
• said processor configured to adjust said power ramp during each interval of energy application based upon said rate of change in impedance over time.