Technical note: electrosurgery active lead failures

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Surgical Technology

Background:

• Electrosurgical active leads are critical for safe and effective surgical procedures.
• Faulty leads can lead to serious complications, including electrosurgical burns.
• Current methods for assessing lead integrity may be insufficient.

Purpose of the Study:

• To survey the types and modes of failures in electrosurgical active leads.
• To design and present a meter for routine testing of these leads in sterilizing departments.
• To establish effective rejection criteria for defective leads.

Main Methods:

• A survey was conducted on a population of approximately 200 electrosurgical active leads.
• A novel meter was designed for resistance testing of the leads.
• Defective leads were identified using a criterion of two times the original resistance.

Main Results:

• 35 out of approximately 200 cables were found to be defective.
• Approximately half of the defective cables exhibited inefficient radio frequency (RF) power transmission, with intermittent power and potential hot spot development.
• The most frequent failure mode was a break in the cable near the forceps end.

Conclusions:

• Faulty electrosurgical active leads pose a significant risk of burns during surgical procedures.
• Routine testing with a dedicated meter is essential for identifying defective leads.
• A suggested rejection criterion for leads is a resistance less than 0.3 omega.