RFA
Ablation is the intentional destruction of tissue, usually with heat.
In most ablations the quantity of tissue affected is minuscule.
In catheter ablation a tiny probe is threaded through the arteries to the interior of the heart, where it zaps a few cells that have occasionally been making the heart beat too fast.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Medical treatment: surgery
ablate
adenoidectomy
adrenalectomy
allograft
amputation
anaesthesia
blood transfusion
endarterectomy
endonasal
enterostomy
enucleate
enucleated
general anaesthetic
mastectomy
prostatectomy
pump something out
reduction mammaplasty
regraft
reimplant
suture

Examples from literature

Each year there must be a very slow sinking of the surface, but the ablation is infinitesimal. 

Examples of ablation

ablation
We are of the opinion that this is just the main thermodynamic difference between the "cold" ablation and the organic material ablation.
The outlet of the first shock in the gas induces a strong rarefaction wave which reflects also into a shock at the ablation radius.
Only with the high exit velocities possible with pulsed laser ablation propulsion is it possible to overcome this problem.
This brings to a decoupling of the laser beam from the target and, as a result, the mass ablation rate decreases with time.
A fraction of the electric current flows close to the wall and causes heating and subsequent ablation.
Low-energy low-divergence pulsed indium atomic beam by laser ablation.
In the earlier reports, pulsed high power laser is focused onto the target resulting into the ablation of material, giving pulsed atomic beam.
This served the purpose of identification as well as to approximate the handling given to treatment beetles during ablation of appendages.
With our present knowledge it is not possible to quantify the contribution of each of these processes in reducing the ablation depth exactly.
The models show the potential pathways along how organic molecules can survive the ablation process, albeit chemically altered.
Pulsed laser ablation mechanisms of thin metal films.
The best ablation efficiency was observed with femtosecond laser pulses.
Synthesis and processing of silicon nanocrystallites using a pulsed laser ablation supersonic expansion method.
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