Effect of multiple use and sterilization on sealing performance of bipolar vessel sealing devices

BACKGROUND: Advanced bipolar vessel sealing devices are widely used in human and veterinary medicine to reduce the operation time and intraoperative blood loss. Because most devices are made for a single use, their application is cost intensive. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of multiple uses and sterilization on the performance of bipolar vessel sealing devices. METHODS: The burst pressure of sealed porcine renal arteries was compared between the disposable devices „LigaSure”(Valleylab) and „Caiman“(Braun Vetcare) and the reuseable device „MarSeal”(KLS Martin). Additionally, the influence of the sterilization process was investigated, and the sealing time, number of cutting activations and tissue sticking were noted. RESULTS: The disposable devices showed reliable performances over multiple activations and sterilization cycles, except for one Caiman device. Seals created with all devices achieved supra-physiologic burst pressures, with the highest pressure measured in a cycle using a MarSeal device. DISCUSSION: During 25 activations with and without intermittent sterilization, no correlation was found between increasing seal numbers and decreasing burst pressure. However, the number of cycles in our study was limited to five. CONCLUSION: For limited numbers of cycles and sterilization procedures, seals created with the disposable vessel sealing devices LigaSure and Caiman achieved burst pressures comparaable to those produced with the reuseable MarSeal.