The Newest Thing in Electrical Surgery.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3, 20 July 1907, Page 38

The Newest Thing in Electrical Surgery.

Electrical cautery is receiving ever wider and wider application in the hands of surgeons, especially for minor operations, as about the nose and throat. The

cautery lias the remarkable advantage over the knife that it seals its own wounds, preventing bleeding. By varying the intensity of the heat, its action can be changed; for instance, a black

beat acts merely as a counter-irritant, a dull red heat is a counter irritant, but, besides, destroys tissue locally and seals the blood vessels. An instrument at a bright red beat destroys tissue readily, but does not form so good a seal for stopping hemorrhage; while a white hot wire acts practically like a knife. It will be seen, therefore, that in the use of the electric cautery the surgeon must have a source of current that can be

regulated very nicely, and, moreover, one that can be depended upon. The ordinary electric supply is not well suited for cautery work. In the first place, the voltage is too high, and must be passed through a large resistance, or rheostat, to reduce it. A rheostat, however, changes its resistance with the rise in temperature after the current has been turned on, so that the physician must continually readjust it as be works. Worse than this, the electric light supply cannot be depended upon; in fact, one only gives himself into the hands of chance if he relies upon it. Every one has noticed that the electric lights are frequently extinguished, due to failure of the current supply, and this might happen in the middle of a serious operation, resulting, perhaps, in danger to life, or at least an ugly scar. The primary battery offers a solution of the difficulty, but the trouble in the past has been to get a primary battery which would be at once light enough to carry about and able to supply-sufficient current for a long enough time to answer all surgical purposes. Such a battery would find a ready market among physicians and surgeons throughout the country, especially those who live in the smaller . towns and frequently have to operate without the facilities of aii elaborate hospital equipment.

In a recent, number, of the “Electrical World,” a novel and interesting battery is described which seems to answer these requirements. Although the cell weighs only fifteen pounds, or, when enclosed in a leather-lined carrying case, nineteen pounds, it will furnish any current up to 125 or 150 amperes. Ju fact, it can be used to fuse heavy wires or nails. When a piece of wire 2 inches in length is placed between the binding posts, it immediately begins to show a dull red glow, which rapidly grows to a cherry red, then a bright red, the i a dazzling white, and finally the wire burns into a shower of sparks, as from a blacksmith's anvil. Further, the power of the current, can be regulated to a nicety, so that a cautery instrument may lie heated to any temperature required, and maintained there for several hours, while at the same time current is being taken from the battery for the surgeon's headlight or for exploration lamps.

The most remarkable feature of the cell is. that it will maintain so large a current for so long a period, something which, as those who are familiar with primary electric batteries well know, other typ<)f\ of batteries will not do. This was explained by one of the experts of the company which has developed the new battery from a series of patents taken out several years ago by a well known chemist.

“There is as much power, for a given amount of materials, in any primary battery as in mine,” said this engineer, “but the trouble is that the other batteries do not keep going. They will light an electric lamp, run a motor, or heat a cautery, but for a few minutes only. In our battery the elements, which in other cells are usually stationary, are made to rotate, which brings them continually into contact with fresh solution, so that the force of the battery does not die out. Take a primary battery, for instance, which will operate a door bell for six months at intermittent periods. If you attempted to use it for a continuous supply of heavy current, it would last only a few minutes. By our invention we condense the energy of six months into a continu i performance of six or seven hours.