An In Vitro Study of Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Diffusivity in a Bipolar Vessel Sealing Modality

Bipolar vessel sealing (BVS) is an advanced hemostasis approach applied in surgical operations. However, lateral thermal damage to adjacent nerves or tissue has remained an issue needing further investigations, because the thermal damage might increase the likelihood of the BVS surgical complications. Study on the tissue thermal properties help to reduce tissue lateral thermal damage, it is because understanding the thermal transmission mechanisms of BVS depends on achieving accurate values for tissue thermal conductivity (TC) and thermal diffusivity (TD), and accurately predicting their evolution. Therefore, in this work, experiments are conducted on the effect of the water content, compression ratio, and temperature on the TC/TD of a bovine femoral artery model in vitro using the step-temperature method and one-factor analysis of the TC/TD variance. The experimental results show that the TC/TD is significantly dependent on these factors. The TC/TD have a positive correlation with the temperature and water content and a negative correlation with the compression ratio. Regression equations are established for the TC/TD versus temperature (14 °C to 60 °C) and compression ratio from no compression (0%) to 90%. The study results could provide key parameters for vessel thermal transmission analysis on the sealing strength and thermal diagnosis of BVS.