Patent ID: 8852179

Claim:
A system for monitoring and/or controlling tissue modification during an electrosurgical procedure comprising: an electrosurgical apparatus adapted to connect to an electrosurgical generator, the electrosurgical apparatus configured to transmit energy to tissue; a control system including: at least one interrogator wave source configured to generate an interrogator wave of at least one frequency adjacent tissue; a sensor configured to transmit the interrogator wave of at least one frequency and sense a reflected portion of the interrogator wave of at least one frequency; and a processor operatively coupled to the control system and to the electrosurgical generator, the processor configured to determine a dielectric boundary data based on a phase shift between the interrogator wave of at least one frequency transmitted by the sensor and the reflected portion of the interrogator wave of at least one frequency sensed by the sensor, the processor configured to control the delivery of electrosurgical energy from the electrosurgical generator to tissue based on the dielectric boundary data determined by the processor.