Argon plasma coagulation.
Argon Plasma Coagulation (APC) is an application of gas discharges in argon in electrosurgery, which is increasingly used especially in endoscopy. The major application fields are haemostasis, tissue devitalization and tissue reduction.This review describes the physics and technology of electrosurgery and APC. Some characteristics of the argon discharge are shown and discussed, and thermal effects in biological tissue are described. Subsequently, examples of medical applications are given.
Zenker
Matthias
M
ERBE Elektromedizin GmbH, Tübingen, Germany.