Electrosurgery Turbinate Reduction Revisited: Can Comparable Volumetric Heating be Achieved Without Feedback Control?

Area of Science:

• Otolaryngology
• Minimally Invasive Surgery
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Temperature-controlled radiofrequency inferior turbinate ablation (TCRFA) precisely heats tissue but uses expensive, single-use consumables.
• Traditional monopolar electrosurgery devices with low-cost needle tips may offer a more economical alternative for volumetric tissue heating.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify optimal power parameters for electrosurgery submucosal diathermy (SMD) to replicate the volumetric tissue heating of TCRFA.
• To evaluate the cost-effectiveness and time efficiency of SMD compared to TCRFA.

Main Methods:

• Pre-clinical study using egg white and chicken breast as tissue models.
• Comparison of an electrosurgery SMD system (4-32W, 5-120s) with a standard TCRFA system.
• Measurement of coagulum dimensions to approximate lesion volume as a prolate spheroid.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in lesion volume was observed between SMD and TCRFA at specific power and time settings (e.g., 8W for 30s, 16W for 30s).
• SMD achieved equivalent lesion sizes significantly faster than TCRFA (P < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• Optimized electrosurgery parameters can achieve lesion volumes comparable to TCRFA.
• SMD devices are more cost-effective, time-efficient, and suitable for office-based procedures, presenting an affordable alternative to TCRFA.