Novel evaluation method for electrosurgical ablation by monopolar hot biopsy forceps for colonoscopy

This study evaluates tissue injury, which results from electrosurgical ablation, by correlating lesion depth to tissue impedance, and introduces a newly developed real-time feedback control system that can be applied for preventing excessive tissue injury. Although some previous studies had evaluated such tissue injuries in other ways, a specific mechanism is necessary to actually prevent excessive tissue injury.

Ablation tests were performed by using an impedance bridge circuit and gel block that have been developed in two previous studies. Depth of the ablation site was measured with the use of a laser displacement measurement device. To simplify the programing work, voltage was used, as a substitution of tissue impedance, to evaluate tissue injury.

The depth of the ablation site was found to increase with either increased power setting or ablation duration, and the depth was analyzed to investigate correlation with measured voltage. The real-time feedback control system was developed by achieving communication between LabVIEW and an Arduino microcontroller.

It is concluded that the depth of the ablation site modestly correlates with the measured voltage under specific conditions, and the newly developed system fulfills the goal of the design.