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electrocautery
noun
elec·tro·cau·tery
i-ˌlek-trō-ˈkȯ-tə-rē
: cauterization of tissue by means of an instrument heated by an electric current
Examples of electrocautery in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The treatment: If you're bothered by their appearance and long for the days when your skin was smooth and clear, Dr. Gonzalez says dermatologists can lightly burn these doughnut-looking bumps off with electrocautery, laser them off, or freeze them off with cryotherapy.
—Women's Health, 2 May 2023
Healthcare providers can use any of the following procedures to remove cherry angiomas:2 Electrocauterization: Also known as electrocautery, this procedure removes unwanted or harmful tissue.
—Sarah Fielding, Health, 9 Mar. 2023
Cutting into the body, cutting bits out of it, and sewing it back together again may well be as old a practice as making fire, which, for millennia before the invention of electrocautery, provided the means for stanching bleeding.
—Will Self, Harper’s Magazine , 28 Sep. 2022
Skin tags specifically can be removed in one of three ways: snipping it off with small surgical scissors, burning it (electrocautery), or freezing it (cryosurgery), according to Dr. Jaliman and the AOCD.
—Madison Yauger, Health.com, 10 June 2021
Precise implant pocket dissection is done using electrocautery to minimize bleeding and trauma.
—Dallas News, 23 Jan. 2020
Open prostatectomy also offers the advantages of tactile feedback; greater access to the surgical field; less need for electrocautery that burns tissues; and absence of concern about equipment failure or inadvertent tissue injury.
—WSJ, 24 June 2018
Toyoda went to work in the late afternoon, gingerly using forceps and an electrocautery tool to separate Collins’ old heart from the sticky scar tissue that surrounded it.
—Tom Avril, Philly.com, 13 June 2018
Lillegard and pediatric cardiovascular surgeon Francis Moga used tweezerlike electrocautery tools to remove the tumor, bit by bit.
—Emily Sohn, Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2018
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Word History
First Known Use
1860, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near electrocautery
Cite this Entry
“Electrocautery.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/electrocautery. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Medical Definition
electrocautery
noun
elec·tro·cau·tery
-ˈkȯt-ə-rē
plural electrocauteries
1
: a cautery operated by an electric current
2
: the cauterization of tissue by means of an electrocautery
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