Fulguration and thermo-radiotherapy / by William Seaman Bainbridge ; and, Diathermy (Nagelschmidt) and electro-coagulation (Doyen) / by Worthington Seaton Russell.

  • William Seaman Bainbridge
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Fulguration and thermo-radiotherapy / by William Seaman Bainbridge ; and, Diathermy (Nagelschmidt) and electro-coagulation (Doyen) / by Worthington Seaton Russell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    action, the effect of which is to eliminate neoplastic tissues, and, if we admit the parasitic theory, to destroy micro-organisms and their toxins; and, in the second place, they produce a tropho-neurotic curative action, which brings hack the vital processes to the normal state. “It could not be a contemplation to employ the thermo-electrical- chemical action for the elimination of large tumors, for zvhich excision is the elective treatment, hut the surgical operation should he followed by the preventive and curative treatment in recurrent cases. “High-frequency currents, and, more especially, the monopolar efHeuves of Oudin’s resonator, seem to exercise this action by modifying the vitality of the new regions contaminated by the surgeon’s knife during the operation, after having drained and disinfected them. This special mode of applying electricity seems at the present time one of the only therapeutic methods to be tried in cases of inoperable tumors.” Riviere reviewed the subject in 1909,^ asserting that since 1900 he had maintained that “every operation for malignant growths should be immediately follovued. by the application of high-frequency sparks and eiHeuves, in order to avoid contamination of the open surgical wound and to prevent recurrence.” He declared that by means of different electrodes he could pass from the very finest shower of sparks (effieuve) to fat, short (4 to 5 centimeters) sparks, and even to sparks and effieuves of from 5 to 15 centimeters in length. He insisted that de Keating-Hart added nothing to the Riviere method except the “useless spraying, or blowing, of air” through the electrode. Riviere did not agree that the high voltage claimed for the de Keating-Hart method was correct, but that on the contrary the amperage of the latter method is high. For these various reasons it was maintained that the two methods were exactly alike, except for the current of air to which reference has been made. The correctness of these statements may be judged from the appended description of the de Keating-Hart method. “Destructive Fulguration.” The term “destructive fulguration” is sometimes applied to the ordinary high-frequency electro-cauterization employed by many sur- geons and electro-therapeutists in the treatment of benign and malignant neoplasms. In this method a bipolar current, with a short spark, is utilized for “burning down” the growth. With a special apparatus a monopolar current, with long spark, as described by Riviere, may be used. The application, with various machines, of the high- frequency current, with short spark, is the method most frequently referred to as fulguration, and which is most commonly confounded with the fulguration of de Keating-Hart. It is also designated as electro-carbonization.” The danger of such confusion of terms may be readily understood when it is recalled that the “burning down” of neoplasms is distinctly *Riviere. Alto-frequent Cytolysis peutics, July, August and September, of Cancer. Journal of Advanced Thera-
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