Ultrasonic torsional tissue dissection utilizing subaltern modes of longitudinal-torsional resonators

1. In a method of forming an ultrasonic tissue dissection instrument which includes a transducer connected to a tip having a resonator for producing exciting extensional motion in the resonator and producing motion in the terminus of the tip, the improvement being in selecting as a comparison tip a tip which is capable of producing L/T motion when operated by a transducer at a specified frequency and capable of being operated in a subaltern mode when operated by a transducer at a frequency substantially lower than the specified frequency, forming an TL/T tip by using for the length and lateral dimensions reduced dimensions which are scaled down from the length and lateral dimensions of the comparison tip by a ratio of the subaltern frequency to the L/T frequency, and creating TL/T motion in the TL/T tip by operating the transducer at the same specified frequency which would have produced L/T motion in the comparison tip.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the instrument is lengthened by adding one half longitudinal wavelength resonators to the transducer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the reduced dimensions are scaled down by 0.5.

4. The method of claim 1 including inserting a reductive resonator between the transducer and the TL/T tip.

5. In a method of forming an ultrasonic tissue dissection instrument which includes a transducer connected to a tip having a resonator and a tissue dissection terminus whereby extensional motion is excited by the transducer and motion is produced at the terminus, the improvement being in inserting as the resonator a reductive resonator between the transducer and the tip, the reductive resonator and the tip being resonant at the same frequency as the frequency of the transducer, the tip being a TL/T tip, and the TL/T tip is produced by the method of claim 1 .

6. In a method of forming an ultrasonic tissue dissection instrument which includes a transducer connected to a tip having a resonator and a tissue dissection terminus whereby extensional motion is excited by the transducer and motion is produced at the terminus, the improvement being in inserting as the resonator a reductive resonator between the transducer and the tip, the reductive resonator and the tip being resonant at the same frequency as the frequency of the transducer, the tip being a TL/T tip, the transducer producing an exciting extensional motion communicated to the reductive resonator, and the reductive resonator producing a diminished extensional motion that excites the TL/T tip and results in torsional motion at the terminus of the TL/T tip.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the reductive resonator which is used includes a reduced diameter section joined to an enlarged diameter section joined to the TL/T tip.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the reductive resonator and the TL/T tip are removably mounted to the transducer whereby the reductive resonator and the TL/T tip may be replaced with an L/T tip.

9. The method of claim 8 including removing the reductive resonator and the TL/T tip from the transducer, and mounting an L/T tip to the transducer.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the reductive resonator which is used has a uniform outer surface and is composed of two different materials longitudinally aligned with each other.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein the reductive resonator which is used has a uniform outer surface and is composed of a first section longitudinally aligned with a second section, and the first section having a smaller cross sectional area of material than the second section.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the first section is adjacent to the transducer, and the second section being adjacent to the TL/T tip.