What is electrocoagulation?
Electrocoagulation is a method of removing dermatological lesions. It utilizes high frequency electricity to induce a controlled thermic damage to the fibers inside the cells. The procedure is performed with the use of variously shaped electrodes (e.g. needles, ballpoint needles, blades, an electrode to non-invasively close the blood vessels).
When to use the electrocoagulation?
Electrocoagulation can remove: viral warts, flat warts, nevi (moles), milia, steatocystoma, dilated capillaries on the face and legs, spider angiomas, as well as excess hair.
What are the contraindications for electrocoagulation?
The procedure should not be performed on patients with cardiac pacemakers, pregnancy, diabetes, cardiovascular and blood coagulation disorders.
What are the possible side effects?
Directly after the procedure, an edema, erythema (redness), bruise, or pain can occur. These, however, are completely normal reactions which cease after a few hours. Usually, a scab is formed in place of the removed skin lesion; it disappears after a few days.
The irregular side effects include discoloration and atrophic or hypertrophic scars. Those, however, are very rare and are predominantly the results of the early scab removal by the patient or abnormal wound healing.