RADIO IN SURGERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1931, Page 6

RADIO IN SURGERY

SPARK AS KNIFE-BLADE To-day, among the miracles that radio has wrought, is one of the finest surgical instruments ever invented, according to many of those who have used it—and it is nothing more than high-frequency current, writes F. M. Jelane in “Popular Wireless.” By “surgical instrument” I mean just that—an instrument for the cutting of human tissue, the removal Of malignant growths by actual surgery, or the resection (not the destruction by burriing) of a bad thyroid gland, unhealthy tonsils, or a diseased appendix. A finger could be even more neatly amputated by the use of the "radio knife” (“endotherm” is its proper riahie), and a small bone-cutting saw or knife, than it can, now, by the use of the scalpel.

In the latter part of the last century the great Polish engineer and scientist, Nicola Tseja, and Professor d’Arserival, one of France’s outstanding workers in electricity, both noted the effect of high frequency current on living tissue. They worked out at that time some facts about it which have since been proven not only accurate, but extremely useful. They found that a current up to 10,000 cycles created the well-known muscular spasms, even resulting in death if administered in high enough amperage doses. The spasmodic muscle contraction, however, gradually decreased as the current frequency increased. Somewhere around 300 cycles seemed to be the most violerit and painful effect, and also gave the most serious burn.

Above 10,000 cycles the human rierves seem unable to register or transmit to the muscles the electrical shock. This high-frequency current can, however, in spite of the absence of muscular contraction due to the current proper, inflict a very deep burn of a special type. For surgery it is the high-frequency spark that does the work. It is rather difficult to say who really started forward the study of high-frequency surgery; but shortly after the war Dr. George A. Wyeth, of New York, began a careful investigation of endothermy, using a cold needle to create the same effects (desiccation and coagulation of tissue) as was being done with a hot needle.

He soon found that he could break open tissue ,by high-frequency spark, and eventually worked out the principles which two American companies have now commercialised—one in the “endotherm” (taking the original name of the treatment), and the other in a high-frequency surgical unit, the former instrument being a regulat spark transmitter, the latter a threetube transmitter.

The patient is laid upon the operating table with a carefully grounded metal plate laid beneath him. The anaesthetic having been administered, the operating surgeon turns on. his “radio set,” and draws the cutting electrode across the part to be cut. There is a sharp little hissing sound, a- sriiall plume of steam rises, following the “knife,” and an incision of a depth equal to or greater than that made by a scalpel with a similar movement is thus cleanly done. No effort to the surgeon, no dangei- of slipping due to a hard pull of the knife, and practically no blood to hinder the vision of the surgeon and later to weaken the patient in recuperating.

VERY LITTLE BLOOD LOST What occurs, according to Dr. Wyeth’s idea, is that there is apparently an actual molecular disintegration of the cells coming in contact with the spark (which can be seen occasionally'as the electrode moves through the flesh). There is, apparently, very little heat, but just enough to cause the breaking down of a single small unit such as a tissue cell, these structures' being entirely consumed by the arc, thus leaving ho residue. The slight burning effect which the radio knife has is one of its most important attributes. It is this which stops the blood flow Ifc'om the tiny

blood vessels running so close to the skin and throughout the fatty arid muscular tissue. In motion pictures .of operations by this method, one of the first things noticed was the remarkable and almost entire absence of the sponge, as compared with regular knife surgery.

This small Heat .effect also is important for antiseptic reasons as to a large extent it cauterises wounds which might otherwise become infected through otherwise unavoidable circumstances. The fact that it is a very shallow burn allows for a proper healing after the operation, as the flesh is not seared deeply, leaving much dead tissue to slough off before healing may begin. The advantages of the radio knife, then, are primarily those of speed due to bloodless cutting, which enables the surgeon to see always what he is doing; , accuracy for the same reason, and because the surgeon does not have to strain his muscles in cutting, no serious loss of blood for the patient, and sterilisation of wounds.