Electrosurgery units are common and effective tools for performing surgeries.

Electrosurgery has become a popular means for performing a wide array of medical operations, with the capability of cutting tissue or coagulating it to prevent blood loss during surgery.  For many procedures, electrosurgery has replaced the traditional surgical cutting implements (scalpel, scissors, etc.) as the tool of choice.  The electrosurgery unit consists primarily of a Bovie pen (or cutting electrode), a return electrode (or patient electrode), and an electrical generator.1  The most common type of electrosurgery is monopolar, in which current flows through the patient from an electrode held in the hand of the surgeon (Bovie pen) to a large electrode pad stuck on the skin of the patient (patient electrode).  The hand-held electrode, which can be thought of as similar to a scalpel, is named the Bovie electrode, or Bovie pen, after the inventor of electrosurgery, Dr. William T. Bovie.  The current will spread out as it passes through the body to the large pad, but near the Bovie pen there is a high current density that creates heat in the body tissues immediately adjacent to the pen.  It is this highly localized heat that performs the task of cutting or coagulating the tissue.  The type of electrical waveform that is selected by the user and created by the generator dictates whether the ESU will cut or coagulate.

EWH has developed an ESU tester to ensure these devices remain functional.

New ESUs are generally listed around US$5,000, though they can run at prices beyond US$30,000.  Still, it is not uncommon to find electrosurgery units in hospitals in the developing world.  Hospitals in the US and Europe typically update their medical equipment every few years, and discarded models can make it to the developing world through the work of charities, non-governmental organizations, and other groups.   Unfortunately, much of this donated equipment is not fully functional, but this may not always be obvious to doctors and technicians in developing world hospitals.  ESUs will not function properly if they have insufficient or incorrect power outputs.  In developed countries, ESU analyzers are used to measure the power output, but these diagnostic units are expensive, often costing over US$2,000.  Our ESU tester costs roughly one one-hundredth of this price, but still provides the essential function of an ESU analyzer: measuring the power output of the ESU.  This information is useful to hospital technicians as they diagnose medical equipment so that they know what repairs or preventative maintenance must be performed.  These ESU testers will provide a great benefit to developing country hospitals with electrosurgery units and medical equipment donors who want to ensure the functionality of ESUs bound for the developing world.

You can help by building EWH ESU Testers!

Building ESU is a fun and educational activity that is suitable for all skill levels. To build a kit, you will need the following tools: soldering iron, solder, safety glasses, needle-nosed pliers, wire cutters, a small wrench, and scissors. If you have questions about building kits, please see our kits FAQs page or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The ESU tester design received a 2010 Gold IDEA Award.