SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS WITH INTEGRATED ELECTROCAUTERY

摘要

The invention includes a series of surgical instruments (1000) providing at least one electrode (1002) for performing electrocautery, and provides a method for cutting and cauterizing tissue with a surgical instrument. The invention involves a method for detecting the location of a bleeding vessel in a liquid-filled, visually monitored surgical field of a patient and for electrocauterizing the vessel to stop the bleeding before visualization of the surgical field is compromised. Surgical instruments according to the invention also include operable components (118) for forming a liquid cutting jet for cutting or ablating tissue of a patient and/or for providing a rotating, tissue contacting component (122) for cutting, grinding, ablating, etc. tissue during a surgical procedure. Some surgical instruments include one or more liquid conducting lumen (118, 120) therein for transporting and/or removing a liquid from a surgical operating field, which lumen, in some cases, are selectively coated with a layer of an electrically insulating material so that certain, selected, uncoated regions of an external surface of the lumen can act as an electrocautery electrode of the instrument.