A self-limiting electrosurgical electrodefor use with electrosurgery and various other surgicalpro-cedures is disclosed. The electrode includes a heatingele-ment for generating heat to warm a patient resting uponthe electrode. The electrode can also include one or morepads to prevent the creation of pressure sores or decubitusulcers on a patient resting upon the electrode. Theelec-trode has an effective bulk impedance equal to or greaterthan about 4,000 .OMEGA..cm, which arises from resistivecom-ponents, capacitive components, inductive components,or combinations thereof. Through the selection of theimpedance characteristics for the electrode materials, andthrough tailoring of electrode geometries, the electrode ofthe present invention is self-regulating and self- limitingas to current density and temperature rise so as to preventpatient trauma.
