Lesions

Medicine
In medicine, ablation is the same as removal of a part of biological tissue, usually by surgery. The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary defines ablation as "Removal of a body part or the destruction of its function, as by a surgery, disease, or noxious substance."

Where full removal of an organ or structure has taken place the term extirpation is used

Surface ablation in the skin (also called resurfacing, because it induces regeneration) can be carried out by chemicals (peeling) or by lasers. Its purpose is to remove skin spots, aged skin, wrinkles, thus rejuvenating it. Surface ablation is also employed in otolaringology for several kinds of surgery, such as for snoring. Ablation therapy using radiofrequency waves on the heart is used to cure a variety of cardiac arrhythmias such as supraventricular tachycardia, WPW syndrome, ventricular tachycardia and more recently atrial fibrillation. The term is often used in the context of laser ablation, a process by which the molecular bonds of a material are dissolved by a laser.

Rotoablation is a type of arterial cleansing that consists of inserting a tiny, diamond-tipped, drill-like device into the affected artery to remove fatty deposits or plaque. The procedure is used in the treatment of coronary heart disease to restore blood flow.

Bone marrow ablation is a process whereby the human bone marrow cells are eliminated in preparation for a bone marrow transplant. This is performed using high intensity chemotherapy and total body irradiation. As such it has nothing to do with the vaporisation techniques described in the rest of this article.

Recently, some researchers reported successful results with genetic ablation. In particular, genetic ablation is potentially a much more efficient method of removing unwanted cells, such as tumor cells, because large numbers of animals lacking specific cells could be generated. Genetically ablated lines can be maintained for a prolonged period of time and shared within the research community. Researchers at Columbia University report of reconstituted caspases combined from C. Elegans and humans, which maintain a high degree of target specificity. The genetic ablation techniques described could prove useful in battling cancer.