ABSTRACT
Physicians rarely understand electrosurgery because they are uncomfortable with the concepts behind basic electricity. This Chapter provides an overview of these concepts as they apply to electrosurgery. Electrosurgery is the direct application of electricity to tissue for the purpose of cutting or controlling bleeding. Perhaps the most basic concept needed to understand electrosurgery is that electricity always flows in a complete loop or circular pathway. In electrosurgery, that current goes out of the active electrode through the patient and returns to the generator via the patient or return electrode. Electrosurgery uses radio frequency currents. Capacitance is probably the hardest electronic concept to understand in electrosurgery. Dentists routinely perform electrosurgery on patients without putting a patient electrode on the skin to return the current to the generator. In dental electrosurgery, the active electrode pressed against tissue is analogous to the light bulb.
