Medical Equipment Maintenance: User Maintenance Checklist Electrosurgery Units / Cautery Machines

As most equipment problems are either simple or user-related it is the aim that the better care and regular maintenance enabled by this manual will have a significant positive effect on the delivery of healthcare. The maintenance tasks are placed in daily and weekly checklists. This will help in planning time for them to be carried out. In most cases, for daily tasks the beginning of the working day will be best, but any time will suit as long as the job is done. For weekly tasks, it may be easier to allocate a different day for each type of equipment, to spread the load through the week. A simple timetable with the person responsible can be used as a reminder. Electrosurgery is the application of a high-frequency electric current to biological tissue as a means to cut, coagulate, desiccate, or fulgurate tissue. Its benefits include the ability to make precise cuts with limited blood loss in hospital operating rooms or in outpatient procedures. Cautery, or electrocautery, is the application of heat to tissue to achieve coagulation. Although both methods are sometimes referred to as surgical diathermy , this chapter avoids the term as it may be confused with therapeutic diathermy, which generates lower levels of heat within the body.

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