The comparison of bleeding and pain after tonsillectomy in bipolar electrocautery vs cold dissection

Although tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgeries performed in pediatric, it has potential major complications such as pain and bleeding. This study aimed to compare the bleeding and pain after tonsillectomy in bipolar electrocautery tonsillectomy versus cold dissection.

This double blind clinical trial was conducted on 70 pediatric patients who were candidate of tonsillectomy. Patients were divided into two groups of including bipolar cautery (BC) and cold dissection (CD). operation time, intraoperative blood loss, and postoperative bleeding and pain were evaluated in the current study.

In both of the CD and BC groups, no significant difference was found in terms of sex and age. The average amount of the intraoperative blood loss in BC group was 14.086 ± 5.013 ml and in CD group was 26.14 ± 4.46 ml (p. v = 0.0001). The mean time of operation in BC group was 19 ± 2.89 min and in CD group was 29.31 ± 5.29 min (p. v = 0.0001). patients were evaluated in terms of pain on the first, third, fifth, and seventh days after the operation. No statistically significant difference was found between two groups. Moreover, Compared pain scores in all times across two groups, no significant difference was found. In terms of postoperative bleeding, none of the patients in both groups had bleeding during follow-up.

Our study showed that bipolar electrocautery tonsillectomy can significantly reduce the operation time and intraoperative blood loss; however, postoperative pain and blood loss were similar in both techniques. We recommend bipolar electrocautery as the most suitable alternative method for tonsillectomy, especially in children.