Postoperative pain in tonsillectomy: comparison of ultrasonic tonsillectomy versus blunt dissection tonsillectomy

Intraoperative blood loss, postoperative pain, and postoperative appetite were compared between 15 adult patients who underwent tonsillectomy using an ultrasonically activated scalpel (UT) and 15 adult patients who underwent blunt dissection tonsillectomy with cold steel instruments (BT). The average intraoperative blood loss of the UT group was 4.6 +/- 1.9 ml (mean +/- standard deviation), while that of BT group was 41.9 +/- 12.9 ml. This difference was highly statistically significant (p < 0.0001). In contrast, there were no significant differences in the VAS pain and appetite scores between patients who underwent UT and those who underwent BT on any day in the 6-day postoperative period. Our current results show that UT is a safe technique, and we believe that it should be considered a useful alternative for tonsil surgery.