Electrosurgical Information
Electrosurgery is the application of a high-frequency electric current to biological tissue as a means to cut,
coagulate, desiccate, or fulgurate tissue.(These terms are used in specific ways for this methodology-see below). Its benefits include the ability to make precise
cuts with limited blood loss. Electrosurgical devices are frequently used during surgical operations helping to prevent blood loss in hospital operating rooms or in outpatient procedures.
In electrosurgical procedures, the tissue is heated by an electric current. Although electrical devices may be used for the cauterization
of tissue in some applications, electrosurgery is usually used to refer to a quite different method than electrocautery. The latter uses heat conduction from a probe heated by a direct current (much in the manner
of a soldering iron), whereas electrosurgery uses alternating current to directly heat the tissue itself.
Often electrosurgery is mistakenly referred to as diathermy. Unlike Ohmic heating by electric current passing through the conductive
tissue in conventional electrosurgery, diathermy means dielectric heating, produced by rotation of molecular dipoles in high
frequency alternating electric field. This effect is most widely used in microwave ovens which operate at GHz frequencies.
Electrosurgery is commonly used in dermatological, gynecological, cardiac, plastic, ocular, spine, ENT, orthopedic, urological,
neuro- and general surgical procedures.
Electrosurgery is performed using an Electrosurgical Generator
(also referred to as Power Supply or Waveform Generator) and a handpiece including one or several electrodes, sometimes referred to as an RF Knife. The apparatus when used for coagulation in surgery is still often
referred to informally by surgeons as a Bovie, after the inventor.
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