Patent ID: 11911096
Assignee: BIOSENSE WEBSTER (ISRAEL) LTD.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. A system for detecting contact and proximity between ablation electrodes by sensing changes in voltage morphology of non-activated electrodes, the system comprising:
a pulse generator, which is configured to apply one or more bipolar ablation pulses between a first and second electrode of a catheter that are contacting tissue within a body, for ablating the tissue in contact with the first and second electrodes, wherein the catheter additionally includes a third electrode on which the pulse generator does not apply an ablation pulse; and
a controller, which is configured to: (i) control the pulse generator to apply the one or more bipolar ablation pulses between the first and second electrodes, (ii) monitor voltage between the third electrode and a reference during application of the one or more ablation pulses, wherein the third electrode is a non-active electrode, (iii) compare the voltage to a reference voltage stored in memory associated with the controller, and (iv) issue a notification during application of the one or more ablation pulses in response to detecting that the voltage violates a predefined criterion based on the comparing.