Sadly, many people have been confused and misled by incomplete, and sometimes incorrect, information about how medical devices and instruments function. Frequently, the descriptions of how medical devices and instruments function are filled with technical terms and jargon that prevent ordinary people from understanding otherwise simple concepts.
Below are links to papers written by Warren P. Heim of Team Medical to help address these problems. Much of the content of these articles comes from the work done by Mr. Heim at Team Medical. When other sources are used they are referenced.
This compilation started in January 2015 with one article that describes how electrosurgery cuts tissue.
How Electrosurgery Really Cuts Tissues -- click to download PDF
Summary: In the 1990s I started detailed investigations of the interactions of electrical energy with tissues
during electrosurgery. For many years I had heard various conjectures about how the high
voltage electrical energy delivered to tissue caused cutting and coagulation. Many of those
conjectures were stated with great assurance, but without any substantive backing or support
from withstanding challenges by either testing or theoretical calculations.
Briefly, none of the common conjectures about how electrosurgery cuts tissue withstand scrutiny. Each of the common conjectures is listed below along with the reasons why each conjecture is not correct. The list starts with the most common conjecture about how electrosurgery cuts tissue, the exploding cell theory. According to this conjecture the onslaught of electrical energy at the edge of the electrosurgical electrode (such as a blade) heats the water inside cells, causing the water to boil, leading to a rapid increase in volume resulting in cells exploding. This concept was first proposed by Valleylab (e.g., United States Patent 3987795, Electrosurgical devices having sesquipolar electrode structures incorporated therein, 1976) and has been subsequently repeated by others (e.g., Pearce JA: Electrosurgery. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1986). (Download the PDF for the complete paper.)
Briefly, none of the common conjectures about how electrosurgery cuts tissue withstand scrutiny. Each of the common conjectures is listed below along with the reasons why each conjecture is not correct. The list starts with the most common conjecture about how electrosurgery cuts tissue, the exploding cell theory. According to this conjecture the onslaught of electrical energy at the edge of the electrosurgical electrode (such as a blade) heats the water inside cells, causing the water to boil, leading to a rapid increase in volume resulting in cells exploding. This concept was first proposed by Valleylab (e.g., United States Patent 3987795, Electrosurgical devices having sesquipolar electrode structures incorporated therein, 1976) and has been subsequently repeated by others (e.g., Pearce JA: Electrosurgery. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1986). (Download the PDF for the complete paper.)
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