Ablation is the removal of biological tissue, usually by surgery.
Surface ablation of the skin (dermabrasion, also called resurfacing because it induces regeneration) can be carried out by chemicals (chemoablation), by lasers (laser ablation), or by electricity (fulguration). Its purpose is to remove skin spots, aged skin, and wrinkles, thus rejuvenating the skin. Surface ablation is also employed in otolaryngology for several kinds of surgery, such as surgery to curb snoring. Ablation therapy using radiofrequency waves on the heart is used to cure a variety of cardiac arrhythmias such as supraventricular tachycardia, Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome, ventricular tachycardia, and more recently as management of atrial fibrillation.
The term is often used in the context of laser ablation, a process in which a laser dissolves a material's molecular bonds. For a laser to ablate tissues, the power density or fluence must be high, otherwise thermocoagulation occurs, which is simply thermal vaporization of the tissues.

Ablation of brain tissue is used for treating certain neurological disorders, particularly Parkinson's disease, and sometimes for psychiatric disorders as well.

Genetic ablation is a method of removing unwanted cells, such as tumor cells — this technique could prove useful in battling cancer

Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Internet. Accessed on January 18, 2016.