Electrotherapeutics is a general term for the use of electricity in therapeutics, i.e. in the alleviation and cure of disease.
In the technical working of medical electrolysis the most minute precautions are required.
The area of introduction can be exactly circumscribed by cutting a hole in a sheet of adhesive plaster which is applied to the skin and on which the electrolytic electrodes are pressed.
The local effects of the ions depend on the dosage; thus a feeble dose of the ions of zinc stimulates the growth of hair, but a stronger dose produces the death of the tissue.
[1] Electrolysis can also be used for extracting from the body such ions as are injurious, as uric and oxalic acid from a patient suffering from gout.