An electrosurgical instrument (10, 100), comprising: a housing; a handle assembly; and an end effector assembly including a pair of opposing jaw members (110, 120) configured to grasp tissue therebetween, each of the opposing jaw members including: a non conducting tissue contact surface; charactised in that each of the opposing jaw members includes at least one energy delivering element configured to perforate the tissue to create an opening, extract elastin and collagen from the tissue and denaturize the elastin and the collagen in the vicinity of the opening, the at least one energy delivering element includes: a post electrode configured to apply energy to the tissue to perforate the tissue and to extract elastin and collagen from the tissue; and a ring electrode to denaturize the elastin and the collagen in the vicinity of the opening, and in that each energy delivering element on jaw member has a corresponding energy delivering element on the opposing jaw element such that when the jaw members (110, 120) are closed about tissue, electrosurgical energy flows from post electrode on jaw member to post electrode on the opposing jaw member or from ring electrode on jaw member to ring electrode on the opposing jaw member. a housing; a handle assembly; and an end effector assembly including a pair of opposing jaw members (110, 120) configured to grasp tissue therebetween, each of the opposing jaw members including: a non conducting tissue contact surface; charactised in that each of the opposing jaw members includes at least one energy delivering element configured to perforate the tissue to create an opening, extract elastin and collagen from the tissue and denaturize the elastin and the collagen in the vicinity of the opening, the at least one energy delivering element includes: a post electrode configured to apply energy to the tissue to perforate the tissue and to extract elastin and collagen from the tissue; and a ring electrode to denaturize the elastin and the collagen in the vicinity of the opening, and in that each energy delivering element on jaw member has a corresponding energy delivering element on the opposing jaw element such that when the jaw members (110, 120) are closed about tissue, electrosurgical energy flows from post electrode on jaw member to post electrode on the opposing jaw member or from ring electrode on jaw member to ring electrode on the opposing jaw member. a non conducting tissue contact surface; charactised in that each of the opposing jaw members includes at least one energy delivering element configured to perforate the tissue to create an opening, extract elastin and collagen from the tissue and denaturize the elastin and the collagen in the vicinity of the opening, the at least one energy delivering element includes: a post electrode configured to apply energy to the tissue to perforate the tissue and to extract elastin and collagen from the tissue; and a ring electrode to denaturize the elastin and the collagen in the vicinity of the opening, and in that each energy delivering element on jaw member has a corresponding energy delivering element on the opposing jaw element such that when the jaw members (110, 120) are closed about tissue, electrosurgical energy flows from post electrode on jaw member to post electrode on the opposing jaw member or from ring electrode on jaw member to ring electrode on the opposing jaw member. a post electrode configured to apply energy to the tissue to perforate the tissue and to extract elastin and collagen from the tissue; and a ring electrode to denaturize the elastin and the collagen in the vicinity of the opening, and in that each energy delivering element on jaw member has a corresponding energy delivering element on the opposing jaw element such that when the jaw members (110, 120) are closed about tissue, electrosurgical energy flows from post electrode on jaw member to post electrode on the opposing jaw member or from ring electrode on jaw member to ring electrode on the opposing jaw member.