Post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage rates: are they technique-dependent?

Recent publications have identified different rates of postoperative hemorrhage between "cold" tonsillectomy techniques and "hot" tonsillectomy techniques, generally identifying lower bleeding rates after cold techniques. Data from a prospective institutional review were analyzed to determine the relative risk factors for post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage among different techniques and by different age groups.

At the co-located John Hunter Hospital and John Hunter Children's Hospital, data were collected prospectively over a period of five years to allow a nonrandom comparison between a nondiathermy dissection technique for tonsillectomy with a monopolar diathermy technique in the management of nonmalignant disease of the tonsils, in children and adults, by determining complications in the first 28 days after surgery.

One thousand one hundred thirty-three consecutive cases were analyzed. The primary post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage rate was 0.2% for blunt dissection plus diathermy hemostasis and 0.3% for monopolar diathermy dissection plus hemostasis. Monopolar diathermy had a lower rate of secondary postoperative hemorrhage, requiring readmission (4.2% compared with 5.4% for blunt dissection plus diathermy hemostasis) and a lower rate for readmission for observation alone (2.1% compared with 4.2%) but had a higher risk of returning to surgery (1.6% compared with 1.04%) and a higher risk of blood transfusion (0.49% compared with 0.2%). These differences, however, did not reach statistical significance (Yates chi(2)), and neither did the relative risk between the two techniques. Two-way analysis of variance among secondary post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage complications by technique and by age groups shows a highly statistically significant difference by age group (analysis of variance, 3 df, F = 9.509, P < 0.001), much more so than technique.