Most patients think of electrosurgery and electrosurgery equipment as something ultra new and cutting edge. Today’s electrosurgery equipment is compact and computerized but electrosurgery actually began in 1926 and was first used in a successful operation that removed an aberrant growth from a patient’s head. William Bovie developed the first electrosurgery equipment sold commercially at Harvard.

Electrosurgery uses electric current to cut and seal incisions in any part of the body. The advantage of electrosurgery is a minimal loss of blood and other body fluids, faster operating times, smaller incisions, less scarring, and much faster healing times.

The equipment works by taking advantage of the current carrying capacity of body fluids. Just like salt water will conduct a current all body fluids have ions (anions and cations) that are capable of carrying a current.

Electrosurgery has progressed with time, computerization, and the rapid development of medical knowledge to a state of art that is truly phenomenal and lifesaving. Procedures that were once a dream are now a reality thanks to the advances in electrosurgical techniques.

In electrosurgery, a small variable capacity electric generator is needed. Probes of varying sizes that can be inserted into large and small body orifices are needed to carry the current to the affected area. Sterile tubes that conduct the probe to the area to be operated on are essential. Controls that guide the probes and allow a surgeon to control the amount of current delivered are basic in electrosurgery.

Electrosurgery is very versatile. The technique allows a trained surgeon to cut, coagulate, desiccate, and fulgurate a specific area by controlling the amount of current used and the distance the electrode probe is from the area being operated on.

Two of the major players in the development and marketing of electrosurgery devices and accessories are Bovie electrosurgery equipment and Conmed electrosurgery. Both companies have their own developments that boast to be the most cutting edge technology.

Bovie electrosurgery equipment is the result of William Bovie’s first leap into electrosurgery. Bovie electrosurgery equipment claims, with some right, to be the most recognized name in electrosurgery. One of this company’s more recent and innovative devices is a small hand held control that allows the surgeon to control both the amount of current and the movement of the cutting probe with a single hand, much like one controls a computer mouse. This device allows for much more accuracy and control for the surgeon.

Conmed electrosurgery claims to be the number one choice of surgeons for electrosurgery for the last seventy years. One of Conmed electrosurgery’s newer innovations is a low cost high frequency electrogenerator. This device makes electrosurgery practical in countries where hospitals have very low budgets. The generator is also portable enough that it can be taken into the bus almost anywhere and used with a generator.

Electrosurgery has developed to the extent that a trained surgeon in New York can operate on a patient in Nepal or anywhere else in the world provided the proper equipment is available and an Internet visual connection allows the surgeon to see the area he is operating on.