[The effects of thermal welding tonsillectomy on postoperative pain]

This study aims to compare the effects of the thermal welding tonsillectomy and conventional cold dissection tonsillectomy on the postoperative pain.

Between November 2009 and May 2011, 60 pediatric patients (38 boys, 22 girls; mean age 8.4 years; range 5 to 15 years) who underwent tonsillectomy due to chronic tonsillitis or obstructive sleep apnea were included. Tonsillectomy with thermal welding was performed on 30 patients and conventional cold dissection tonsillectomy was performed on the 30 patients. Postoperative pain was assessed by visual analog scale. Postoperative first day pain score was accepted as 10 and the patients were asked to score between 0-10 for other nine days. Student t-test was used for the statistical evaluation of pain scores in the first five days, while Mann-Whitney-U test was used for the other days.

In the first five day evaluation, the mean pain score was 35.83 for cold dissection tonsillectomy and 31.90 for thermal welding tonsillectomy. The mean pain value for the last five days was 15.6 for cold dissection tonsillectomy and 10.33 for thermal welding tonsillectomy. The mean pain scores of cold dissection tonsillectomy were statistically significantly higher, compared to thermal welding tonsillectomy for first five day, last five day and total 10 days (p<0.05).

We consider that thermal welding tonsillectomy results in lower postoperative pain, compared to the conventional cold dissection tonsillectomy.