Electrosurgical instrument
AssigneeCreo Medical Limited
InventorsChristopher Paul HANCOCK, Patrick BURN, Pallav SHAH
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrosurgical instrument for delivering microwave energy to biological tissue, in which a pair of conductive tuning elements are mounted in a radiating instrument tip to shape a microwave radiation profile of the instrument so that the radiation profile is constrained around the instrument tip. Such tuning elements may result in a radiation profile that is substantially spherical around the instrument tip, providing a well-defined ablation volume. The tuning elements act to improve the efficiency with which microwave energy can be delivered into target tissue.
Claims20
An electrosurgical instrument comprising:
- a coaxial feed cable for conveying microwave energy, the coaxial feed cable having an inner conductor, an outer conductor, and a dielectric material separating the inner conductor and the outer conductor;
- and
- a radiating tip disposed at a distal end of the coaxial feed cable to receive the microwave energy, the radiating tip comprising:
- an elongate conductor electrically connected to the inner conductor and extending in a longitudinal direction to form a microwave radiator;
- a proximal tuning element electrically connected to the elongate conductor in a proximal region of the radiating tip;
- a distal tuning element electrically connected to the elongate conductor in a distal region of the radiating tip;
- and
- a dielectric body disposed around the elongate conductor, the proximal tuning element and the distal tuning element;
- wherein the proximal tuning element and the distal tuning element are spaced apart in the longitudinal direction, whereby a microwave field emitted by the microwave radiator is shaped around the dielectric body;
- and
- wherein a length of the distal tuning element in the longitudinal direction is greater than a length of the proximal tuning element in longitudinal direction.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.