Comparison of Intraoperative and Postoperative Outcomes With Skin Flaps Raised Using Either Harmonic Scalpels or...

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women. Hence, its treatment has become our utmost priority in developing countries like India. Modified radical mastectomy (MRM) has traditionally been used as the standard of care for early-stage invasive breast carcinoma and still is the most commonly used surgical treatment for carcinoma breast.

The study compared the incidence of intraoperative and postoperative outcomes with skin flaps raised using a harmonic scalpel versus those raised using electrocautery.

Sixty women with biopsy-proven breast cancer who had to undergo MRM were randomly assigned to undergo skin flap raising during mastectomy by using electrocautery or harmonic scalpel. Thirty patients had surgery with electrocautery (Group 1) and 30 with a harmonic scalpel (Group 2) by the same surgical team.

The mean operative time was significantly longer with harmonic scalpel when compared to that with electrocautery (140.67 ± 28.55 vs. 122.00 ± 19.16 mins, P =0.004). The amount of intraoperative blood loss (178.33 ± 21.06 vs 138.50 ± 28.53 mL P = 0.001) was less in the group operated with the harmonic scalpel, which was statistically significant. There was no significant difference between the groups regarding total drainage content (310.83 ± 88.93 vs 298.20 ± 127.87 mL, P = 0.659), drain duration (6.83 ± 0.75 vs 7.43 ± 2.27 days, p=0.174), seroma (3.3% vs. 0%) wound infection (3.3% vs 0%), flap necrosis (16.7% vs. 3.3%, P = 0.195), duration of hospital stays (8.57 ± 0.77 vs 8.43 ± 1.61 days, p=0.684).

Harmonic scalpels have a few advantages over electrocautery, but are not cost-effective.