Temperature sensor, temperature measuring device and medical engineering systems comprising a temperature sensor or a temperature measuring device

Abstract

In order to provide a temperature sensor or a temperature measuring apparatus having a temperature sensor, which enables direct temperature measurement, in particular even during treatment, in particular even with HF surgical devices, it is proposed that the temperature sensor includes a sensor element with a medium which can be excited to luminescence, in particular fluorescence, and an optical waveguide which is optically connected to the sensor element and is intended to supply light to the medium at an excitation wavelength and/or to pick up and conduct light at a luminescence wavelength of the medium which can be excited to luminescence.

Claims

1. A medical engineering system comprising at least one temperature sensor comprising a sensor element including a medium showing luminescence upon excitation, the medium showing luminescence upon excitation being a crystal, the at least one temperature sensor also comprising a light conductor which is optically connected to the sensor element and is intended for supplying the crystal with light having an excitation wavelength and/or for receiving and discharging light having a luminescence wavelength of the crystal, the medical engineering system being implemented as a surgical system, wherein the surgical system comprises a device for cutting, dissection, coagulation, sealing and/or connecting tissue structures of a patient, the device comprising an applicator tool with two applicator elements in the form of applicator jaws which can be moved relative to each other and can be transferred from an open resting position to a closed working position, the at least one temperature sensor being arranged in at least one of the applicator elements, said at least one of the applicator elements comprising at least one spacer which keeps the applicator elements in the working position at a predefined distance relative to each other, the at least one spacer forming the at least one temperature sensor, wherein the applicator jaws each extend in a longitudinal direction, and wherein the light conductor of the at least one temperature sensor extends inside one of the applicator jaws in the longitudinal direction.

2. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the medical engineering system comprises a protective mechanism which blocks the activation of the at least one temperature sensor unless the applicator elements are in the working position.

3. The medical engineering system according to claim 2, wherein the protective mechanism comprises an optical, electrical or mechanical contact maker monitoring the position of the applicator elements.

4. The medical engineering system according to claim 2, wherein the protective mechanism comprises a separate temperature sensor for determining the temperature of at least one of the applicator elements.

5. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the medical engineering system comprises an RF generator, a temperature measuring device, a device for evaluating a temperature profile and/or a device for regulating or controlling a system-related function depending on temperature values measured by the at least one temperature sensor.

6. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the applicator elements comprise a structured surface area which facilitates the gripping of tissue structures.

7. The medical engineering system according to claim 6, wherein the structured surface area comprises a grid-like surface structure.

8. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the medical engineering system comprises a metering device for a primer material based on collagen or gelatin.

9. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the luminescence wavelength of a discharged light signal of the at least one temperature sensor is adapted to form the basis of a quantum yield observation to which a specific temperature is associated in each case.

10. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the conductor is a common light conductor for supplying, receiving and discharging light having the excitation wavelength and the luminescence wavelength.

11. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor element is directly connected to the light conductor.

12. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor element comprises the medium showing luminescence upon excitation in a sleeve which surrounds the medium and is designed so as to be rigid.

13. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, comprising a laser and a luminescence detector in the form of a photo cell.

14. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one temperature sensor comprises a plurality of temperature sensors in the form of a two- or three-dimensional matrix received in a mount, the plurality of temperature sensors having predefined distances relative to one another.

15. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the crystal is a ruby.

16. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the crystal is a sapphire or a body containing YAG materials.

17. The medical engineering system according to claim 1, wherein the applicator jaws each comprise a structured surface, and wherein the sensor element of the at least one temperature sensor projects from the structured surface to form said at least one spacer.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

(1) These and other advantages of the invention will be explained in more detail with the aid of the drawings in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a temperature sensor of the present invention;

(3) FIGS. 2A and 2B show the temperature sensor of FIG. 1 in two different sensor arrangements;

(4) FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the functional principle of the temperature sensor according to the invention;

(5) FIG. 4 shows the temperature independency of the fluorescence quantum yield of a temperature sensor according to the invention;

(6) FIG. 5 shows a medical engineering system of the present invention; and

(7) FIG. 6 shows a part of the medical engineering system of FIG. 5 in an enlarged and detailed illustration.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) FIG. 1 shows a temperature sensor of the present invention which on the whole is provided with the reference symbol 10 and comprises a sensor element 12 in the form of a ball-shaped ruby crystal and a light conductor 14 attached thereto which is optically connected to the sensor element 12. In this embodiment of the temperature sensor 10 according to the invention, only a single light conductor 14 is provided, serving both for supplying light with the excitation wavelength for the luminescence of the excitable medium 13 of the sensor element 12 and for receiving and discharging the luminescence which is emitted from the medium 13 and induced by the excitation wavelength. The sensor element 12 may comprise a sleeve 15 (shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1) which surrounds the medium 13 and connects the sensor element to the light conductor 14. Optionally, the light conductor 14 may be surrounded by a cladding material 16 (shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1) which for its part is connected to the sleeve 15 of the sensor element preferably in a substance-to-substance bond.

(9) FIG. 2A shows a temperature measuring device 20 in which three temperature sensors 22a, 22b and 22c are supported in a mount 21 such that their sensor elements 24a, 24b and 24c are arranged in a triangular matrix.

(10) The sample body 26 shown schematically offers the opportunity to determine the temperature in a spatially resolved manner.

(11) FIG. 2B shows a temperature measuring device 30 which also comprises three temperature sensors 32a, 32b, 32c kept spaced from each other such that their sensor elements 34a, 34b and 34c are linearly arranged at equal intervals.

(12) At the same time, the sensor elements 34a, 34b, 34c protrude from the surface of the mount 36 and in this way define a distance to a body 38 which, in combination with the mount 36, may constitute a pair of applicator elements for instance for high-frequency current.

(13) FIG. 3 schematically shows the functional principle of the luminescent media of the sensor elements of the temperature sensors according to the invention.

(14) By means of absorption of the light having an excitation wavelength 1, the medium showing luminescence upon excitation changes from an energetic state E1 to an energetically excited state E3, from which the medium goes back to the excited state E2 thermally by relaxation. Under the emission of light with the wavelength 2, the system returns from the excited state E2 to the energetic state E1. This shall be described in more detail below on the basis of a ruby crystal representing a medium showing luminescence upon excitation.

(15) In ruby crystals, chromium ions are responsible for luminescence which is irradiated here in the form of fluorescence. The chromium ions possess optimum spectral absorption bands via which fluorescence light can be excited with large quantum yield. One of the absorption bands in the green spectral range allows for an excitation of the ruby crystal (as the medium showing luminescence upon excitation) with an excitation wavelength 1 of approximately 532 nm, whereas the emission wavelength 2 in the red spectral range is approximately 694 nm. The observed quantum yield depends on temperature, i.e. the ratio of the number of emitted photons to absorbed photons decreases with rising temperatures. This temperature dependency is sufficiently pronounced in the temperature range between approximately 30 and approximately 150 C. which is of interest for medical science, in order to provide sufficiently exact temperature values of treated tissue structures.

(16) The two wavelengths of the excitation light and the fluorescence light are spaced from each other so far that their light proportions can be optically separated without any problems and the quantum yield of the fluorescence having the wavelength 2 can be determined in an easy and accurate manner.

(17) FIG. 4 shows the fluorescence quantum yield of a ruby crystal versus temperature in the range from 50 to 115, and the resultant curve may serve for the calibration of a temperature sensor according to the invention comprising a ruby crystal, which is used for sealing tissue structures.

(18) It can be seen that there is an almost linear dependency between the temperature, on the one hand, and the fluorescence quantum yield (here plotted as the intensity or the counts of a photo diode). The measured values were obtained at a constant excitation light intensity with a ruby crystal placed in a temperature-controlled furnace.

(19) FIG. 5 shows a schematic illustration of a medical engineering system 50 according to the invention.

(20) The medical engineering system 50 comprises a device (provided with the reference symbol 52) for sealing and/or connecting tissue structures of a patient. In the schematic illustration of FIG. 5, this device is illustrated so as to be reduced to two applicator jaws 54, 55 which are pivotally connected with each other. The generator required for supplying electric current to the applicator jaws 54, 55 as well as the device for applying the applicator jaws 54, 55 to a tissue structure are known to a person skilled in the art and are omitted in FIG. 5 for simplicity.

(21) A temperature sensor 56 according to the invention is arranged in one of the applicator jaws 54, whose sensor elements 58 are designed in such a manner and arranged in the applicator jaws 54 such that it is able to also take over the function of a spacer preventing the two applicator jaws 54 and 55 from directly coming into an electrically conductive contact, avoiding in this way a short-circuit between the two jaws 54 and 55.

(22) Apart from the sensor element 58, the temperature sensor 56 comprises a light conductor 60 attached thereto.

(23) The medical engineering system 50 further comprises a light source in the form of a laser 62 whose laser beam is coupled into the light conductor 60 via a mirror 64 and a dichroic mirror 66. The laser 62 is a Nd:YAG laser whose output light is doubled in frequency and thus has a wavelength of approximately 532 nm.

(24) The optical system used for coupling is schematically represented in FIG. 5 by a lens 68. Via the light conductor 60, the excitation light of the laser 62 is radiated into the sensor element 58 and the medium showing luminescence upon excitation arranged therein (in the present example again a ruby crystal) and generates here the fluorescence with a wavelength of approximately 694 nm, as described above in the connection with FIGS. 3 and 4, which is emitted by the ruby crystal in isotropic fashion. The light conductor 60 detects in fact only a fraction of this emitted radiation, but detects said fraction in a constant manner, so that the fluorescence light of the ruby crystal of the sensor element 58 received by the light conductor 60 is representative for the total quantum yield. The fluorescence light is transmitted by the light conductor 60 through the optical system 68 and penetrates the dichroic mirror 66 which has such a design that it reflects the excitation wavelength of approximately 532 nm whereas it permits the wavelength of 694 nm to pass. Having passed the dichroic mirror 66, the red fluorescence light is guided via a further optical system 70 to a detector 72 and its photodiode 74, with the voltage signal U which is generated here being evaluated as intensity.

(25) The temperature sensor 56 in combination with the sensor element 58 and the light conductor 60 as well as the laser 62 as the light source and the detector 72 constitute a temperature measuring device of the present invention. In preferred embodiments of the temperature measuring device according to the invention, as illustrated in FIG. 5 as part of the medical engineering system 50, the light conductor 60 serves both to transport the light with the excitation wavelength to the sensor element 58 and to transport the luminescence of the excited medium to the detector 72. The optical systems 68 and 70 as well as the mirrors 64 and 66 provide for optimized light paths within the temperature measuring device.

(26) Due to the fact that the sensor element 58 and the ruby crystal which is used as the medium showing luminescence upon excitation are arranged so as to protrude from the surface of the applicator jaw 54, it is in direct contact with the tissue situated between the applicator jaws 54, 55, so that any temperature change of said tissue is directly transferred to the sensor element 58. Due to the temperature dependency of the quantum yield of the fluorescence of the ruby crystal (cf. FIG. 4), the temperature of the tissue which is held between the two applicator jaws 54, 55 can be determined from the different voltage signals of the detector 72.

(27) FIG. 6 shows by way of example the two applicator jaws 54, 55 in detail again, which are pivotally supported by means of a hinge portion 80 so as to be electrically isolated from each other.

(28) Two temperature sensors 56, 56 are arranged with their sensor elements 58, 58 in the applicator jaws 54, with the sensor elements 58, 58 comprising their medium showing luminescence upon excitation projecting from the surface of the applicator jaw 54 and in this way forming a stop, i.e. a spacer for the closing position of the applicator jaw 55. The two applicator jaws 54, 55 are equipped with electrically conductive electrodes 82, 83 which can be supplied with electric current and preferably comprise, as is shown in FIG. 6, a structured surface, in particular a surface which is structured in the manner of a grid and prevents the tissue material to be treated, which is held between the applicator jaws 54, 55, from slipping during the treatment.