Radiosurgery: A Forgotten Tool?

Radiosurgery allows precise tissue cutting with simultaneous haemostasis, providing a clearer surgical field. Variation in waveform, power settings and handpiece tip shape allow for a wide variety of clinical applications, making it one of the most versatile pieces of surgical equipment in the dentist's arsenal. However, it is one of the most underused, and probably misunderstood, areas of surgery in dentistry. This may be due to conflicting literature concerning healing, overshadowing of the value of the technique by interest in dental lasers, misuse of terminology and a general lack of knowledge regarding the science underpinning its action. CPD/Clinical Relevance: This article aims to outline the mode of action, adjustable parameters and considerations for the safe use of radiosurgery alongside clinical examples of its applications.

Preparation of Scalpel with Stable Anti-Blood Property

As the most common medical apparatuses, the scalpels are extensively used for tissue cutting. During the tissue cutting process, blood adhesion to the surface of the ordinary scalpel is unavoidable and seriously affects the usability of the scalpel, which may cause medical accidents. Therefore, developing an anti-blood scalpel is of great importance. Herein, we prepare a scalpel with outstanding anti-blood property through coating method. The cleaned ordinary scalpel is immersed in the mixed solution containing nanocomposite ceramic coatings and silicone oil. After drying, the anti-blood scalpel is obtained. It can be observed from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images that the surface of the anti-blood scalpel possesses microstructures. Compared with the ordinary scalpel, our anti-blood scalpel demonstrates outstanding blood repellence. Blood droplets can easily slide on the anti-blood scalpel surface with ~5° sliding angle. Compared with the existing scalpels with anti-blood property, our scalpel has the ceramic slippery surface rather than the slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs). The stability of the ceramic slippery surface is much better than the SLIPSs because the SLIPSs are vulnerable under high temperatures and the decomposition products possess poor biocompatibility, which are harmful to human health. Therefore, the anti-blood scalpel has great application prospects in medical treatment.