ABSTRACT
The need to achieve hemostasis in surgery has been a concern of physicians from at least the days of ancient Egypt (1). Since that time various forms of cautery-to destroy tissue by burning or searing it-have long been used. The earliest known use of cautery described how the physician Imhotep treated medical cases in about 3000 B.C. Dr. William Gilbert, often referred to as the Father of Electrotherapy, began exploring the static electricity properties of amber in the late sixteenth century. The first to use the term “electricity,” his studies laid the groundwork for the development of electrosurgical generators (2).
