Excision of Oral Leukoplakia by CO2 Lasers Versus Traditional Scalpel: A Comparative Study

Laser surgery has shown to exhibit several advantages over scalpel for many procedures. Some of these advantages include hemostasis, decreased scarring, and ability to perform certain procedures without anaesthesia. It has been postulated that laser surgery results in less post-operative pain. However this can be a difficult parameter to measure. This study sought to determine if there was a difference in the intensity and frequency of pain following excision with scalpel when compared to excision done with a CO2 laser.

(1) Hemostasis intra operatively and (2) pain, swelling and scarring post-operatively.

Thirty patients with bilateral (60 lesions) were selected for the entire proposed research. Group A: carbon dioxide laser excision (experimental group). Group B: scalpel excision (control group).

(1) Intra operative bleeding is significantly higher in scalpel side compared to laser side treatment. (2) Percentage change (gained) in facial edema is significantly higher in scalpel side compared to laser side treatment. (3) Distribution of level of pain is approximately similar in both the treatments. (4) Distribution of scarring after 1 month post-operative pain is significantly higher in scalpel side compared to laser side treatment.

Through this study we can infer that CO2 laser supersedes conventional scalpel in terms of better intra-operative and reduced scarring. Post-operative pain and swelling after laser excision did not show any significant difference from that of scalpel.