rhizoverbBeta
DictionarycauterizeBurning tissue
verb

cauterize

KAW-tuh-ryze/ˈkɔːtəraɪz/

To burn body tissue for medical treatment.

The clinician cauterizes a small area of tissue.

A tight overhead clinical view centers the act of thermal wound closure: a blunt cautery tip contacts one end of a small superficial cut, leaving a dry sealed brown segment behind it while a faint localized wisp rises.
Etymology
cauterGreekburning or branding iron
+izeEnglishperform an action

The burning iron names the original instrument of cauterizing: searing flesh with heated metal. The medical sense retains that deliberate use of burning to treat damaged tissue.

In context

Talking With Docs16:00
we use that after numbing up the area with local anesthetic to basically cauterize uh the the lining of that vein and heat shrink it and and basically destroy the vein.
Varicose Veins Explained: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments

More examples

  • The procedure used heat to cauterize the tissue.
  • The medical report explained why the area was cauterized.
  • The instrument can cauterize tissue during surgery.

Forms

cauterize · cauterizes · cauterized · cauterizing

cauterization noun — medical treatment by burning tissue

Similar words

burn
Burn is general; cauterize specifically uses burning to treat tissue medically.
seal
Seal means close; cauterize identifies a particular heat-based method of closing tissue or stopping bleeding.