electrocautery

noun

elec·​tro·​cau·​tery i-ˌlek-trō-ˈkȯ-tə-rē 

: cauterization of tissue by means of an instrument heated by an electric current

Examples of electrocautery in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Other methods include electrocautery (heat), radiofrequency, or carbon dioxide. —Carrie Madormo, Rn, Health, 20 Mar. 2025

For thicker or more stubborn spots, cryotherapy or electrocautery might be the best options. —Christa Joanna Lee, Allure, 20 Dec. 2024

The treatment: If you're bothered by their appearance and long for the days when your skin was smooth and clear, Dr. Gonzalez says dermatologists can lightly burn these doughnut-looking bumps off with electrocautery, laser them off, or freeze them off with cryotherapy. —Women's Health, 2 May 2023

Healthcare providers can use any of the following procedures to remove cherry angiomas:2 Electrocauterization: Also known as electrocautery, this procedure removes unwanted or harmful tissue. —Sarah Fielding, Health, 9 Mar. 2023

Cutting into the body, cutting bits out of it, and sewing it back together again may well be as old a practice as making fire, which, for millennia before the invention of electrocautery, provided the means for stanching bleeding. —Will Self, Harper’s Magazine , 28 Sep. 2022

Skin tags specifically can be removed in one of three ways: snipping it off with small surgical scissors, burning it (electrocautery), or freezing it (cryosurgery), according to Dr. Jaliman and the AOCD. —Madison Yauger, Health.com, 10 June 2021

Precise implant pocket dissection is done using electrocautery to minimize bleeding and trauma. —Dallas News, 23 Jan. 2020

Open prostatectomy also offers the advantages of tactile feedback; greater access to the surgical field; less need for electrocautery that burns tissues; and absence of concern about equipment failure or inadvertent tissue injury. —WSJ, 24 June 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for electrocautery

• coterie
• notary
• rotary
• votary
• prothonotary

Medical Definition

electrocautery

noun

elec·​tro·​cau·​tery -ˈkȯt-ə-rē 

plural electrocauteries

1

: a cautery operated by an electric current

2

: the cauterization of tissue by means of an electrocautery