If you have to have any kind of surgery for a skin problem, including skin cancer, mole removal, or any other number of dermatological issues, using electrosugery to treat and remove them is a very medically popular, current, thing to do. The purposes of this procedure is to destroy benign and malignant lesions, control bleeding, and cut or excise tissue.
The major modalities of electrosurgery are desiccation, fulguration, coagulation, and cutting. Electrosurgery can be used for incisional techniques that produce full-thickness excision of nevi.
The correct output power can be determined by starting low and increasing the power until the desired outcome is attained (destruction, coagulation, or cutting). Smaller cherry angiomas can be electrocoagulated lightly.
Larger cherry angiomas may be easier to treat by shaving them first, then electrocoagulating or desiccating the base. The elevated portion of pyogenic granulomas can be shaved off with a scalpel or a loop electrode using a cutting/coagulation current.
The base of the lesion is curetted to remove the remaining tissue and then electrodesiccated. Complications such as burns, shocks, and transmission of infection can be minimized by careful use of the electrosurgical equipment.
It is also used to destroy benign and malignant lesions, to control bleeding, and to cut or excise tissue. Electrosurgery is simple to use and is useful for treating a variety of skin lesions, especially small superficial lesions (skin tags and small angiomas).
Modern, high-frequency electrosurgical devices transfer electrical energy to human tissue via a treatment electrode. Most electrosurgical units work at frequencies just below the AM radio frequency band.
The electrical resistance of human tissue helps convert this electrical energy into molecular energy, which causes denaturation of intracellular and extracellular proteins, resulting in coagulation or desiccation effects. Raising intracellular water above the boiling point causes cell membrane rupture to produce a cutting effect.
It has many applications in cutaneous surgery, such as: incisional techniques that produce full-thickness excision of nevi. Electrosurgery has become familiar to family physicians and gynecologists who treat cervical dysplasia using the technique of loop excision of the transformation zone of the cervix.
This technique is performed using the same equipment and procedures as in skin surgery. It is often incorrectly referred to as electrocautery.
In electrocautery, the electrode tip, rather than human tissue, serves as the source of electrical resistance. In electrocautery, the electrode tip becomes hot and can cause a burn in tissue.
It is inaccurate to refer to electrosurgical techniques that use the patient as part of the electrosurgical circuit as electrocautery. When tissue is dessicated a technique is used where, an active electrode touches or is inserted into the skin to produce tissue destruction.
Electrodesiccation is used to dry out and destroy the area of electrode contact. In fulguration, the electrode is held away from the skin to produce a sparking at the skin surface and a more shallow tissue destruction.
In electrodissection, the electrode is used to cut tissue.
An electrode tip in the shape of a fine needle, wire loop, diamond, ellipse, or triangle is advanced slowly through the tissue, causing a steam envelope to advance around the tip and produce a smooth cutting effect with little sense of pressure against the tissue by the operator. This minimization of power produces a specimen with minimal heat damage along its margins.
The specimen should be acceptable for pathologic interpretation compared with specimens produced with laser techniques. Wound edges can be approximated with sutures when an excisional biopsy is performed.
Most cutting and coagulating with electrosurgery is done with a monopolar technique rather than a bipolar method. With monopolar electrosurgery current is produced by the generator, delivered to the patient where the work of cutting and coagulating is achieved, and returned back to the generator after the current leaves the patient through a patient return electrode.
The work achieved is due to placing the current into the patient with a small electrode with high current density. The tissues act as resistance to the high current density and create heat to produce the desired effect. The patient return electrode removes the current in a low density format to minimize the heat generated as current exits the patient.
This is accomplished by means of a second electrode (referred to as a dispersive, return, or indifferent electrode) placed in contact with the patient (or in the case of the highest frequency units, near the patient). With these techniques, you can minimize the risk of any skin issues.
Author Resource:-
Tommy Greene has worked in surgical equipment sales for the past 15 years. He has great advice and information on an Electrosurgery Equipment.
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