In modern surgery a large number of electronic components and electrical devices are employed in order to ensure that operations are reliable and do not harm the patient. It is the objective of the present invention to provide a surgical apparatus that ensures that changing between and executing a plurality of modes for controlling the surgical apparatus can be done in a simple and reliable way. For this purpose the surgical apparatus, comprising an electrical instrument in particular for cutting and/or coagulating biological tissue, has an actuation unit disposed on a preferably oblong handle and a control unit providing at least three modes for controlling the electrical instrument, such that these modes can be selected and/or performed by means of the actuation unit. The actuation unit contains a switching rocker with an oblong operating element, which is mounted in a guide device so as to be rotatable about a rocker axis that can be shifted perpendicular to the surface of the handle, so that starting from an initial position a first or second function position can be reached by forwards or backwards rotation about the rocker axis, and a third function position can be reached by pressing the operating element inward, two sensors being disposed on the operating element, one on the left and the other on the right side of the rocker axis, in such a way that by means of the sensors the function position selected by means of the switching rocker can be determined by a control unit.En chirurgie moderne, un nombre important de composants électroniques et de dispositifs électriques sont utilisés en vue de garantir que des interventions sont fiables et ne blessent pas le patient. Lobjectif de cette invention consiste à fournir un appareil chirurgical qui garantit que des changements réalisés entre une pluralité de modes et lexécution de ses modes peuvent être réalisés de manière simple et fiable. A ces fins, un appareil chirurgical doté dun instrument électrique conçu, no
