RFE based chondroplasty in wrist arthroscopy indicates high risk for 1 chrondocytes especially for the bipolar application

15 Introduction 16 The application of radiofrequency energy (RFE) has become widespread for 17 surgical performed chondroplasty especially due to the estimated sealing 18 effect. But safety for procedures in the wrist remains obscure. The purpose of 19 this study was to investigate the subchondral temperature during 20 radiofrequency energy (RFE) application simulating chondroplasty in an 21 arthroscopic setting of the wrist. 22 23 Materials and Methods 24 A chondroplasty of the lunate fossa was performed during an arthroscopy 25 setting on 14 cadaver arms using monopolar or biopolar RFE. The 26 temperature was recorded simultaneously from 7 predefined anatomical 27 landmarks. 28 29 Results 30 For both systems the mean temperature did not reached more than 30°C at all 31 measured points, except for the lunate fossa. The highest subchondral 32 measured peak temperature was 49.35°C (monopolar) and 69.21°C (bipolar) 33 in the lunate fossa. In addition, both radiofrequency (RF) devices showed a 34 proportional decrease of the temperature regarding the distance of the sensors 35 to the RF-probe. 36