The Next Wave in Minimally Invasive Surgery  Posted by mddiadmin
on August 1, 1998  Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry
HREF="/mddi/by_issue.html">MDDI Article Index  An MD&DI August
1998 Column  Research is heating up in the area of RF,
microwave, and high-frequency ultrasound for use in therapeutic
devices.  For decades, scientists have been using
electromagnetic and sonic energy to serve medicine. But, aside
from electrosurgery, their efforts have focused on diagnostic
imaging of internal body structures—particularly in the case of
x-ray, MRI, and ultrasound systems. Lately, however, researchers
have begun to see acoustic and electromagnetic waves in a whole
new light, turning their attention to therapeutic—rather than
diagnostic—applications.   Current research is exploiting the
ability of radio-frequency (RF), micro-, and ultrasonic waves to
generate heat, essentially by exciting molecules. This heat is
used predominantly to ablate cells. Of the three technologies,
RF was the first to be used in a mark