Treatment of cancer of the lower lip with surgical diathermy

In 1925, at the First All-Russian Congress of Physiotherapists, prof. A. L. Polenov said that “... one knife in the hands of even the most experienced surgeon is not able to give the victim everything that he can get if this surgeon has at his disposal a full range of all physiotherapeutic devices.” Unquestionably agreeing with Prof. Polenov about the importance of physiotherapy in surgery, I think, however, that a number of physiotherapeutic procedures are not only an auxiliary method in surgical practice, but sometimes they stand at the same height as the surgeon's knife. I mean the method of operative or surgical diathermy, the method that gave we have excellent results in a number of surgical diseases.Surgical diathermy, in contrast to conservative diathermy, aims to replace to some extent the surgeon's knife and use the effect of heat to destroy pathological tissues.The method of surgical diathermy, being new in its technical capabilities, in essence being moxibustion, is method known from ancient times. In the Middle Ages, Arab Achami especially often used the destruction of tissues for therapeutic purposes with hot iron (ferrum cadens). Using for this purpose iron rods, set in wooden handles, and glowing them over coals. Iron bars have recently been replaced by the Paquelin'a thermocouter, which in turn can be supplanted by surgical diathermy.