Hyfrecator - Modes of Use

Modes of Use

Hyfrecators are used in two principal modes:

• Desiccation, in which electrical energy kills tissue near the probe tip by heating it past the temperature at which cells can survive. The method is called desiccation because it removes water from tissue as steam, leaving the tissue white and dead, without obviously being burned. This mode is usually employed with the probe in physical contact with the skin or lesion to be destroyed. This method is notable for causing relatively little actual destruction at the point of skin contact, but a large zone of destruction beneath the skin, as the current from the probe fans out into the tissue below the point of contact. Such effects may be deliberately employed in destruction of subcutaneous nodules, where minimal damage to the intact and normal skin surface is desired, at the same time as destruction and degeneration of a larger mass immediately beneath the skin, such as a subcutaneous wart or sebaceous gland.

• Fulguration, in which a deliberate spark is generated by touching or nearly touching the sharp probe to the lesion or skin. This results in far higher temperatures at the point of contact of the spark to skin, causing very high temperatures and carbonization (eschar) of the tissue immediately at the spark-contact point, and just below it. Thus, it results in the highest effect at the point of spark contact. This is most useful for completely destroying very superficial structures, such as nevi and skin tags, which protrude above the skin surface.