Noncontact electrosurgical grounding is useful in burn surgery

Grounding patients with large burns to facilitate the use of electrocautery devices during surgery is commonly difficult because of the paucity of available grounding sites. The Mega 2000 Patient Return Electrode System (Megadyne Medical Products, Draper, UT) is an electrode designed to provide electrical return to facilitate function of electrocautery devices without direct patient contact. It accomplishes this by having a very large surface area (720 square inches) in the form of a reusable pad placed on the operating table that is covered by an impermeable drape and clean sheet beneath the patient. We used this noncontact device in 25 operations of 17 children with large burns and limited availability of traditional grounding sites. The patients had an average age of 8.8 + 4.6 years (range, 14 months-14 years), average burn size of 55 + 33% of the body surface (range, 10-95%), and average weight of 33.0 + 17.9 kg (range, 9-75 kg). Operations included 22 excision and grafting operations, an axillary release, a neck release, and bilateral groin releases. The device functioned well in all cases. There were no cutaneous burns observed. No additional traditional devices required placement. We found the device useful in burn surgery in those cases where there is a paucity of traditional grounding sites available.