electric scalpel

noun

variants or electric knife

: a needlelike surgical instrument using high-frequency oscillations in the form of a tiny electric arc at the point of cutting through or cutting away tissue and at the same time sterilizing the edges of the wound and sealing cut blood vessels

Garrido makes the initial chest incision, using an electric scalpel that singes the flesh as it cuts—much as Western heroes cauterized their bullet wounds with branding irons.

—Charles R. Morris, The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center

called also acusector, radio knife