DEVICE FOR AN ELECTROSURGICAL INSTRUMENT

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for an electrosurgical instrument, comprising a coupling unit, said coupling unit having a fluid line connection and a current line connection which are designed to carry fluid and current, via a fluid line of the device and at least one current line of the device, between a higher-level assembly and a distal end of the device and a filter, the filter being provided separately from the coupling unit in a fluid flow path of the fluid line, such that the fluid flowing through the fluid line flows through the filter.

Claims

1. Device for an electrosurgical instrument, comprising a coupling unit for coupling the device to a higher-level assembly not belonging to the device, said coupling unit having at least one fluid line connection and at least one current line connection which are designed to carry fluid and current, via at least one fluid line of the device and at least one current line of the device, between the higher-level assembly and a distal end of the device when the coupling unit is coupled to the higher-level assembly, and a filter which is designed to absorb particles of a predetermined minimum size in order to separate them from the fluid, the filter being provided separately from the coupling unit in a fluid flow path of the fluid line, such that the fluid flowing through the fluid line flows through the filter, wherein the device further comprises a tube connected to the coupling unit, wherein a housing is provided at the end of the tube opposite the coupling unit, and wherein the filter is placed in the housing and protrudes from the housing.

2. Device according to claim 1, wherein the filter is provided in a range from 1 cm to 50 cm adjacent to the coupling unit as measured along the fluid flow path of the fluid line.

3. Device according to either claim 1, wherein the filter is surrounded by a casing which fluidly seals the fluid flow path of the fluid line through the filter to the outside.

4. Device according to claim 3, wherein the current line runs outside the casing with respect to the filter provided within the casing.

5. Device according to claim 4, wherein the casing surrounding the filter and the current line running around the casing are surrounded by the housing, which comprises an electrically insulating material.

6. Device according to claim 1, wherein the filter is designed to absorb particles of a predetermined minimum size from 0.1 μm.

7. Device according to claim 1, wherein the filter comprises a hydrophobic or hydrophobically coated material.

8. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that the fluid comprises gas.

9. Device according to claim 1, wherein the fluid line connection, the fluid line and/or the filter are adapted, at a pressure of at most 2 bar, to allow a fluid flow rate of 0.1 l/min to 12 l/min.

10. Device according to claim 1, wherein the fluid line and the current line are routed in a common line.

11. Device according to claim 1, wherein the filter is substantially circular.

12. Device according to claim 1, wherein the filter has a cross-sectional area through which fluid flows in the range from 100 mm.sup.2 to 10000 mm.sup.2.

13. Device according to claim 1, wherein the device comprises a machine-readable identifier which is associated with a length from the coupling unit to the distal end or a diameter of the device and/or a diameter of the fluid line and/or a fluid flow rate defined by the device.

14. Device according to claim 13, wherein the identifier is provided on the coupling unit.

15. Device according to claim 1, wherein the identifier is of the RFID type and/or a barcode and/or a two-dimensional code and/or a colour code.

16. Device according to claim 2, wherein the filter is provided in the range of 5 cm to 30 cm adjacent to the coupling unit as measured along the fluid flow path of the fluid line.

17. Device according to claim 16, wherein the filter is provided in the range of 10 cm to 20 cm adjacent to the coupling unit as measured along the fluid flow path of the fluid line.

18. Device according to claim 9, wherein the fluid line connection, the fluid line and/or the filter are adapted to allow a fluid flow rate of 0.4 l/min to 1.2 l/min.

19. Device according to claim 10, wherein the hose line comprises PTFE.

20. Device according to claim 13, wherein the filter has a cross-sectional area through which fluid flows in the range from 500 mm.sup.2 to 1000 mm.sup.2.

21. Device according to claim 20, wherein the filter has a cross-sectional area through which fluid flows in the range from approximately 700 mm.sup.2.

Description

[0024] The present invention will be described in greater detail below by means of an embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

[0025] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a device according to the invention;

[0026] FIG. 2 is a side cross-sectional view of the device from FIG. 1 taken along line II-II from FIG. 4;

[0027] FIG. 3 is a further side cross-sectional view of the device from FIG. 1 taken along line III-III from FIG. 4; and

[0028] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the device from FIG. 1 taken along line IV-IV from FIG. 2.

[0029] In FIG. 1, a device according to the invention is generally denoted with reference sign 10. The device 10 comprises a coupling unit 12 which is designed to be coupled to a higher-level assembly (not shown). A first tube 14 is connected to the coupling unit 12 and a housing 16 is provided at the end of the tube opposite the coupling unit 12. A filter 18 is placed in the housing 16 and protrudes laterally from the housing 16. In this way, the housing 16 can be designed to be weight-optimised. In a further embodiment, the housing 16 can of course also be closed, designed to surround the filter. At the end of the housing 16 opposite the first tube 14, the housing 16 is connected to a second tube 20, which is represented in a greatly shortened form in the embodiment shown. The second tube 20 ends in a distal end 22.

[0030] With reference to FIG. 2, it can be seen that the coupling unit 12 has two current line connections 24, 26, which run into the first tube 14 and run there as current conductors 28 to the distal end 22 of the device 10, via which current can be carried from the higher-level assembly, in particular a high-frequency generator, to the distal end 22. Furthermore, the coupling unit 12 has a fluid line connection 30, which also runs into the first tube 14 and runs there as a fluid line 32 to the distal end 22 of the device 10, via which fluid can be carried from the higher-level assembly, in particular a fluid source, to the distal end 22.

[0031] The filter 18 is provided in a flow path, which is defined by the fluid line 32, in such a way that all of the fluid flowing through the fluid line 32 also flows through the filter 18. In order to fluidly seal the filter 18 from the outside, the filter 18 is surrounded by a casing 34.

[0032] In order to be able to use a filter 18 which comprises a flat filter material not having any openings that are significantly larger than a predetermined pore size of the filter (see FIG. 4), the filter 18 is connected to the first tube 14 or to the second tube 20 via conduits 36, 38 made of an electrically conductive material, for example stainless steel, and the current conductor 28 branches off from the fluid line 32 at the conduits 36, 38 and runs in the housing 16 around the filter 18 or its casing 34.

[0033] It can also be seen in FIG. 4 how the current conductor 28 is routed around the filter 18 in the housing 16. With reference to FIG. 4, it can additionally be seen that the filter 18 and its casing 34 are substantially circular.