Project Focus
Fusion of biological tissues through direct and indirect heating is a growing area of medical research, yet there are still major gaps in understanding this procedure. Several companies have developed devices which fuse blood vessels, but little is known about the tissue’s response to the stimuli. The need for accurate measurements of tissue behavior during tissue fusion is essential for the continued development and improvement of energy delivery devices. In this study we are measuring temperatures experienced during tissue fusion and how applied energy and pressure affect bond strength. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Virginia Ferguson, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU-Boulder, and is sponsored by Conmed Electrosurgery. Project funding and recent peer-reviewed papers are listed below.