Cautery

Cautery (Gr. kaiō, 'I burn'), in Medicine, is used of any substance which burns the tissues. (The term 'potential cautery,' as applied to caustic substances, is becoming obsolete.) The actual cautery is an instrument with a head or blade of steel, iron, or platinum, which is heated in a fire or spirit-lamp. In the thermo-cautery (or Paquelin's cautery, from its inventor), the head or blade is made of hollow platinum, so arranged that a flame of benzole can be kept burning in its interior. The galvano-cautery consists essentially of a platinum wire which can be heated to any required degree by passing a strong galvanic current through it. The cautery is used for three main purposes in surgery: to produce counter-irritation over an inflamed part (see BLISTER) (actual cautery); to check bleeding (actual or thermo-cautery), by slowly destroying the tissues at the bleeding point or surface; to perform operations, where the tissues to be divided are either very vascular (thermo-cautery), or very difficult of access (galvano-cautery). See CAUSTIC.