Minimizing thermal damage using self-cooling jaws for radiofrequency intestinal tissue fusion

Radiofrequency (RF)-induced tissue fusion shows great potential in sealing intestinal tissue without foreign materials. To improve the performance of RF-induced tissue fusion, a novel self-cooling jaw has been designed to minimize thermal damage during the fusion.The prototype of self-cooling jaws was developed and manufactured. A total number of 60 mucosa-to-mucosa fusions were conducted usingThe self-cooling jaws showed significant decrease in temperature during the fusion process. An optimal burst pressure (5.7 ± 0.5 kPa) and thermal damage range (0.9 ± 0.1 mm) were observed when the applied RF power was 100 W. The thermal damage range of the prototype has almost decreased 36% in comparison with the conventional bipolar jaws (1.4 ± 0.1 mm). The histological observation revealed that a decrease of thermal damage was achieved through the application of self-cooling jaws.The self-cooling jaws were proved to be effective for reducing the thermal damage during RF-induced tissue fusion, which could potentially promote the clinical application of tissue fusion techniques in the future.