Next: CENTRAL VENOUS PRESSURE (CVP) MONITOR

CAUTERY UNIT

Typical Number in Hospital: 10

Cost Bands: 3,4

References: 4

This may be a separate apparatus or it may be part of an electrosurgery system. It employs a probe with a hot metal tip or wire which is used to stop bleeding and in some cases for cutting. In its very simplest form it may be a hand-held unit containing a large electrical cell which heats up a small wire loop at its tip on pressing a button. Such a unit may be used to remove very small polyps and to stop bleeding. Larger units use a low voltage source from a transformer connected to the cautery probe via a flexible lead. Very small probes exist which can be passed through an endoscope and these may include a thermocouple to allow automatic control of the tip temperature.

For cutting by wire loops a high temperature is required. For coagulation, temperatures of 100[d]C or so are used. Low temperatures cause deeper coagulation due to the thermal conduction in the tissue. The heat coagulation process also has the advantage of sterilizing the site of application.

Similar effects may also be caused by electrosurgery and by focused light beams and by laser light, but these are not normally called cautery.