ablate
Remove by vaporization
Ablate is a technical verb meaning to remove or destroy tissue, usually through surgical procedures, heat, or radiation.
In medicine, doctors ablate abnormal heart tissue to correct arrhythmias or ablate tumors using targeted energy.
The term also appears in physics and aerospace, where materials ablate—erode or vaporize—when exposed to intense heat, as when a spacecraft's heat shield ablates during atmospheric reentry.
The cardiologist will ablate the tissue causing the irregular heartbeat.
Transferred thermal energy
incinerate · sublimate · plasma · reentry · heatshield · spacecraft · combustion · sear
Concentrated light device
- surgeryInvasive medical procedure
- excisionCutting out of tissue
- resectionSurgical tissue removal
- cryotherapyTreatment using extreme cold
radiofrequency · cauterize · electrocautery · catheter · tumor · lesion · tissue · cardiac
heat
Transferred thermal energy
char · incinerate · sublimate · plasma · reentry · heatshield · spacecraft · combustion · sear · scorch
laser
Concentrated light device
cryotherapy · radiofrequency · cauterize · electrocautery · catheter · tumor · lesion · tissue · cardiac · endometrial
abrasion
Shallow surface wound
attrition · deteriorate · degrade · corrode · erode · thin · chafe · fret · gall · scratch
weathering
Atmospheric breakdown of materials
sediment · rockslide · erosional · canyon · icefield · moraine · calving · meltwater · retreat · snowpack
ablateaccrete
Gather gradually into mass
accumulate · deposit · build up · aggregate · sediment
ablateregenerate
Restore by regrowing
graft · implant · transplant · preserve · reconstruct
- ablative materialsSubstances that erode protectively