Patent ID: 7367974

Claim:
A method of resecting a portion of an organ comprising the steps of: (a) inserting an electrode array into the organ, the electrode array providing a set of elongate electrodes positioned by a holder to a surface along a resection cut line; (b) switching radio frequency power to the electrodes to cyclically apply power between different pairs of the electrodes to create a partition of ablated tissue across the cut line; and (c) cutting the tissue of the organ at the ablated tissue to reduce blood loss during resection of a portion of the organ; wherein the elongate electrodes slide within the holder and include graduation marks and including the steps of: (1) positioning the holder against the organ; and (2) individually inserting the electrodes into the holder and sliding them different distances guided by the graduation marks so that the electrodes penetrate the organ to different predetermined depths matching thicknesses of the organ.