The argon beam coagulator: a more effective and expeditious way to address presacral bleeding

Presacral bleeding is a dreaded complication of pelvic surgery. Rapid and effective control of such bleeding is important to avoid potentially life-threatening outcomes. Various methods for controlling presacral bleeding, all with only limited success, have been described in the literature. We report the alternative technique of using the argon beam coagulator (ABC) to control presacral bleeding. We demonstrate its efficacious use in both open surgery and a laparoscopic case. Our approach involved applying an argon beam at bone setting directly to the bleeders and using a "point and shoot" technique. We found that ABC is a simpler, equally effective and expeditious way of addressing presacral bleeding. To the best of our knowledge, there has been only one previously reported case in the literature of the use of ABC to control presacral bleeding.