Medical instrument with thermochromic or piezochromic surface indicators

摘要

Medical devices and methods for creating creating thermal welds in engaged tissue or fastening tissue. In one embodiment, surface portions of the jaws carry thermochromic or piezochromic materials to provide the physician with visual indications of operational parameters when applying energy to tissue. In another embodiment, the thermochromic or piezochromic materials are carried at the working end of a probe used in athroscopy to provide the physician with needed information concerning engagement of the tissue-engaging surface with the targeted tissue. In one embodiment, the chromic materials can be combined with a tissue-engaging surface that comprises a conductive-resistive matrix of a conductively-doped non-conductive elastomer.