Enhanced cutting performance of electrosurgical units by oil-infused laser-textured surfaces

Abstract

To enhance the cutting performance of electrosurgical units, urgent demands have been put forward for their work terminal, including an antiadhesion property and less thermal damage. Herein, an oil-infused surface (OIS) was fabricated by nanosecond laser texturing and spin-coating of medical olive oil and then applied to a work terminal (a scalpel). The effects of four laser scanning paths on the morphology of microdimples used for oil storage were investigated. Then, an array of 0° microdimples with vertical wall and symmetry features was selected to create OISs. The fabricated microdimples contained a nanoscale sponge-like morphology, which improved the oil storage capacity. From the point of view of experimental and theoretical analysis, we verified the autonomous sliding behaviour of plasma droplets on the inclined OIS, and the analysis of the viscosities of the oil film and a plasma droplet showed that the sliding velocity of the droplet decreased with increasing microdimple spacing. Cutting experiments proved that the OIS scalpel has excellent antiadhesion properties for multiple biological tissues. In particular, the OIS scalpel can reduce the cutting force by 19.0% and the tissue thermal damage by 30.8% when cutting pork tenderloin compared to the pristine scalpel. During the cutting process, the introduction of an oil film shifts the interfacial separation from within the tissue to the oil film itself, and the film acts as a thermal barrier to reduce tissue damage, thus greatly improving the cutting performance. The present study highlights the practical application of the OIS as an effective tool in the field of electrosurgical units.