Cosmetic surgery apparatus and method

摘要

The present invention provides surgical apparatus for liposuction in which microwave energy is delivered from a probe into a treatment region to perform a fat liquefying function or a haemostasis function. The apparatus is arranged such that an output microwave field automatically adopts a configuration suitable for the fat liquefying function or haemostasis function depending on the type of tissue encountered by the probe in the treatment region. In particular, by suitable selection of the frequency of the microwave energy, the difference in skin depth of the microwave energy in fat and blood may enable the microwave field to automatically switch its configuration between one suitable for fat liquefying and one suitable for haemostasis without any change required to the amount of microwave power or the energy profile delivered to the probe.

主权项

1. Surgical apparatus thr liposuction comprising:
a microwave energy source arranged to Output a controllable power level of microwave radiation; a probe for inserting to a treatment region in biological tissue, the probe including:
an antenna connected to receive the output microwave radiation and arranged to emit outwardly a microwave radiation field to deliver microwave energy in the treatment region, anda conduit for conveying liquefied fat away from the treatment region; a suction pump connected to the conduit; a detector arranged to detect forward microwave power delivered to the probe; and a controller for adjusting the controllable power level of microwave radiation, wherein the detector is arranged to detect microwave power reflected back from the treatment region; the controller is arranged to select an energy delivery profile from a plurality of predetermined energy delivery profiles based on changes in the detected reflected microwave power based on the detected forward and reflected microwave power to deliver microwave energy according to a predetermined energy delivery profile; and the apparatus further comprises:
a variable attenuator controlled by the controller for varying the amplitude of the microwave radiation from the microwave energy source according to the selected energy delivery profile; anda switch controlled by the controller for modulating the microwave radiation from the microwave energy source to enable pulsed or continuous wave operation according to the selected energy delivery profile,wherein the plurality of predetermined energy delivery profiles include energy delivery profiles in which the frequency of the microwave radiation and the controllable power level are selected such that the emitted microwave radiation field automatically adopts a first configuration when emitted into fat and a second configuration when emitted into blood, the microwave energy delivered by first configuration being for liquefying the fat and the microwave energy delivered by the second configuration being for coagulating the blood.