Description
The cautery iron was widely used to seal wounds and stem bleeding and this type of tool would have been an essential part of any surgeons equipment. The cautery iron would have been heated to a high temperature and then applied either directly to the severed blood vessel to stem bleeding, or more generally to the open wound. The heat action would sear the tissue, preventing loss of blood and sterilising the wound, but producing a scar that would often extend to three times the size of the original wound. Modern forms of cauterisation use caustic chemicals like nitric acid and electrocautery equipment which work by cauterisation through an electrical current. Today cauterisation is used only to seal small bleeding points and remove benign lesions.