ELECTRIC INSTRUMENTS
Diathermy
Diathermy machines generate high frequency electric current.
This energy can be used by the surgeon to cut skin and deeper tissues.
It can also be used to coagulate tissue to limit bleeding.
These effects are the result of heat generated in the tissues
Surgical diathermy is frequently used in surgery to limit bleeding..
- When this current is passed through the patient’s body between two electrodes, the effect is to produce a concentration of current at the smaller electrode in the hand of the surgeon.
- As the surgeon applies his live (small) electrode to the tissues, the current passes through the touched tissue cells and owing to the tissue’s electrical resistance, heat is generated at this contact point.
- The effect is localized because with mono-polar system the current from the live (small) electrode spreads out in the patient’s body and travels to the indifferent electrode which is a large electrode placed in contact with the patient’s body (thigh or sacrum).
- A high density of current occurs only immediately beneath the live electrode because further away (except under fault conditions) the current density is too small to have any heating effect.
- Fault conditions are produced by the contact of patients body with the metallic table
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