NEW INSTRUMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 423, 6 January 1933, Page 3

NEW INSTRUMENT

MEDICAL OPERATIONS LATEST ELECTRICAL DEVICE FOR THE PRACTICE OF DIATHERMY j IMPOVED METHODS I An addition which has just been made to the surgical equipment of the Christchurch Public Hospital is a one-man control electro-surgical unit, the latest development in appliances for the practice of diathermy, and, it is assumed, similar equipment to that used in the remarkable brain operation performed on a London teacher recently; | Eleetrosurgery is the method by which an extremely high-frequency | alternating current is used for the destruction or excision of diseased tissues. The effect of the current, when applied as an arc through an active electrode, is to cut the tissues. It is actually the electric arc which cuts the flesh, the electrodes, some of them small blades and other needles, being blunt. This method of incision and excision strongly contrasts with the use of the long accepted scalpel. The unit is compact in the extreme, the measurements of the base being 12in and 13in, and the overall height only 16in. It is rea_dily portable. To look at this hlack and boxlike unit, with its switches, dial and 'plugs, it is almost incredible that it 'can give such power to the hands of a surgeon. The electrodes are fitted into the tips of holders which, to the layman, resemble large fountain pens. From the other end of each of the three holders a cable leads to a plug in the front panel of the unit. The suri'geon thus always has within his reach three different types of electrodes. One of the switches changes the power rarige of the entire apparatus so as correctly to energise the instruments c,,enerally use for under-water 'work. . There are six types of metal electrode, consisting of a cutting needle, 'a loop, a curved knife, a ball, and curved and straight coagulating needles. .The coagulating needles are not used for the excision of tissue, but for the destruction of diseased tissue. When the high-frequency current is used to destroy tissue by coagulating, there is no cutting arc between tissues and electrode. Instead, the electrode is either brought int5 contact, or inserted in. the tissue mass which is to be destroyed. A Sun reporter was told thai coagulgtion aided the surgeon, in that it stopped bleeding which might otherwise be troublesome. An overseas authority, discussinc the value of eleetrosurgery, says that the demand for it arose from imperfections in the established surgica' technique, long accepted as inhereni in operative methods. The cardina virtues of eleetrosurgery lie in ef

fective destruction of tissues which it is desirable to eliminate, this manifestly including all forms of malignancy, and in the fact that there is no handling of tissues, beeause of the "knife and fork" type of operation, which is unequalled in cleanliness hy the immediate complete sterilisation of both bacterial and malignant infection. Another advantage is the extended use of local anaesthesia. An important point in the use of the unit installed at the Christchurch Hospital is that by means of f oot control of the switch for regulating the energisation of the electrode. in the field of operation, the operating surgeon can instantly adjust the intensity of the current — and so the cutting speed — to suit the character of the tissue.