Short-wave diathermy apparatus and frequency-control possibilities

The general technique of applying short-wave diathermy has become firmly entrenched in the therapeutic repertoire of the medical profession during the past eight years. The clinical effectiveness of this particular physical treatment, along with the commercial development of apparatus suitable for applying this form of energy at an economical cost, has given it wide usage. In spite of the general acceptance of short-wave diathermy in medicine there seems to be no universally accepted theory regarding the action of the electrical fields or currents in the body tissues themselves. In this country the most widely held theory is that the heating effects created in the tissues by the currents account for all the therapeutical results.^1,2 In Europe there is a school of physicians which holds that athermic treatments are clinically effective.³