To decrease tissue damage, continuous intensity should be?

To decrease tissue damage, continuous intensity should be?

• A. Lower
• B. Higher
• C. Unchanged
• D. Variable per patient

Answer: (A)

When a modality delivers energy continuously, tissue heating accumulates over time. Reducing the continuous intensity lowers the amount of energy reaching the tissue each moment, which slows heating and decreases the risk of thermal or tissue damage. If the goal is to minimize harm while still achieving therapeutic effect, you can keep the same duration but use a lower intensity (or switch to pulsed delivery to further limit heating). Increasing the intensity would raise the risk of damage, and leaving it unchanged wouldn’t actively reduce risk, while adjusting to the patient is important in practice but doesn’t replace the safety benefit of lowering intensity in a continuous setting.

When a modality delivers energy continuously, tissue heating accumulates over time. Reducing the continuous intensity lowers the amount of energy reaching the tissue each moment, which slows heating and decreases the risk of thermal or tissue damage. If the goal is to minimize harm while still achieving therapeutic effect, you can keep the same duration but use a lower intensity (or switch to pulsed delivery to further limit heating). Increasing the intensity would raise the risk of damage, and leaving it unchanged wouldn’t actively reduce risk, while adjusting to the patient is important in practice but doesn’t replace the safety benefit of lowering intensity in a continuous setting.