A new tool in the operating room is being hailed as a huge advance. It’s a high-tech way to cut through skin and tissue that creates less heat damage than standard methods.
Deborah Hackworth went under the knife at Nix Hospital in San Antonio. Her surgeon used a new tool to cut out a suspicious lump in her left breast.
“I think patients will recover quickly,” Hackworth commented. “I think there will be less pain involved for us.”
The tool, called the PlasmaBlade, is a new kind of cutting device. Plasma is the same energy used in neon signs and some flat screen TVs. In the operating room, the energy is used to cut through skin and tissue, generating less heat than conventional techniques.
San Antonio breast surgeon Dr. Kathryn Wagner has embraced this new technology. “This is a revolutionary new tool,” she commented, “and a way to perform surgery. It replaces both the scalpel and electrocautery, traditional electrosurgery. When you use this device to cut the skin, you get a clean cut with no burn just like a scalpel, except there’s no bleeding.”
Wagner has been using the PlasmaBlade for about a year now. She says she’s impressed with the lack of heat damage it leaves behind. And she’s noticed less pain for her patients, a decrease in scarring and faster healing after surgery.
“I think this is the best thing since electrocautery was invented,” Wagner stated. “Aesthetics and pain, a lack of pain from surgery. The difference is pretty impressive.”
Now, Wagner uses the PlasmaBlade on almost every case.
The PlasmaBlade is also being used by neurosurgeons, orthopedic and plastic surgeons.
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