**3. The history of RF**

RF energy has been used in medicine for over 100 years. Nikola Tesla, (1856– 1943), Croatia-born electrical and mechanical engineer, is reputed as being the father of alternating high frequency current. But it was Dr. William Bovie (yes, of

**Figure 2.** *The early pioneers of RF energy in medicine, [6] (A), [7] (B) and [8] (C).*

the "Bovie cautery fame") that developed the first electrosurgical device during the period of 1914–1927 at Harvard University [1]. The first reported use of an electrosurgical generator in an operating room occurred on October 1st, 1926 in a surgery performed by Dr. Harvey Williams Cushing [2, 3]. Since Dr. Bovie introduced RF energy and the electrocautery, RF had been used for ablation [4] and coagulation [5] in surgery and medicine. Over the past 20 years, RF energy has evolved and come to dominate esthetic medicine (for good reasons, as will be explained in this chapter). RF was first being used in non-ablative form for skin collagen remodeling and other esthetic applications (**Figure 2**) [9, 10].
