"Bovie" has become generic for "electrosurgery generator" in the same way "thermos" has become generic for those bottles that keep our milk cold and our soup warm. Other people make them - but one company's name stuck.

Radio-frequency currents were introduced to medicine by D'Arsonval and Oudin, who tamed the Tesla coil so it was safer in medicine. It was used to warm tissues; and William Lawrence Clark found that when a needle electrode was attached to these currents and applied to a tumor, it killed cells by desiccation. He published in 1910. Through the work of Clark and others it was recognized that cancer cells were more vulnerable to heat than normal body cells. The heat produced by desiccation and coagulation from the high-frequency current killed the cancer, and healing then took place with the regrowth of normal tissue. The field of operation remained practically clear of blood, owing to the cauterization. Moreover, the wound was aseptic.

Soon, more powerful generators proved capable of cutting action. A blunt-edge, scalpel-like electrode let surgeons draw a line across tissues. This gave an incision with the edges cauterized. The blade of the electrode remained cold. Since the incision was cauterized and bloodless, cancer cells could not escape from the tissues being operated upon. Furthermore, the cut was so delicate, and without pulling; it proved useful for soft, bloody tissues (like the spleen) and delicate tissues (like the brain).

In 1926 the famous surgeon, Harvey Cushing, consulted with a physicist connected with the Harvard Cancer Commission, William T. Bovie. Together they worked to create the most effective circuits and electrodes, which were introduced into surgery in October of 1926. Cushing then recalled many of his patients who had vascular tumors of the brain, previously considered inoperable. In a 1927 lecture, Cushing said that electrosurgery permitted the removal of certain brain tumors from situations, and in circumstances, that less than a year previously he would not have thought possible.

Our military electrosurgery unit was given to us by the Hennepin Technical College, which was folding its medical-electronics programs into its regular electronics programs. They had two, but the cooking program insisted on keeping one. Not only does electrosurgery work well on people, it is the finest tool yet devised for carving pumpkins and watermelons into artistic table displays.

Today, laser scalpels have taken over many of the functions of earlier electrosurgical units. They work in a similar manner, but produce much less radio interference to cause trouble in the modern electronic operating-room.

Museum Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10 to 5
Thursdays 10 am to  8pm 
Closed Major Holidays
Library Hours: Monday - Friday 9 to 4:30

Admission: $7 Adults; $5 Students & Seniors; Children 3 and under are FREE!

© The Bakken Updated: April 6, 2007