Harmonic scalpel tonsillectomy: a prospective study

The harmonic scalpel has been in use for tonsillectomy for the last 5–6 years in western Europe and North America. Although some studies have found this technique to be superior to other conventional methods, its use is still not very popular. In this single-blinded prospective study, the intraoperative events and postoperative morbidity after the use of harmonic scalpel in tonsillectomy (HST) was evaluated in 180 cases in two hospitals and compared with conventional steel tonsillectomy (CST) and hemostasis secured by bipolar diathermy or ligatures in 100 cases. Both bipolar diathermy and ligatures were used to control the intraoperative bleeding in all cases of CST and some cases ( n =9) of HST. The study was done in two hospitals. Patients were randomized irrespectively of their age, sex, past history or indication for surgery. The total number of patients operated on was 180 for HST and 100 for CST. The surgical duration, intraoperative blood loss and postoperative pain were compared between the patients who only had tonsillectomy done in either group ( n =120 in HST and n =70 in CST). The mean operative time in the HST group was not longer than the CST group, but the intraoperative blood loss was significantly less in the HST group. Postoperative pain was present in all patients in the HST group, but to a lesser extent than in the CST group. There was no major postoperative hemorrhage in the HST group that required surgical attention. HST has the advantage over CST when secondary hemorrhage after tonsillectomy is considered. Thus, following the results of the National Prospective Tonsillectomy Audit (NPTA), it may be safe to say that HST is superior to most other conventional methods in reducing secondary hemorrhage. The use of disposable blades in CST certainly reduces the risk of the transmission of Cruetzfield-Jacob disease (CJD).     

超声刀扁桃体切除术与低温等离子扁桃体切除术的对比研究

目的 探讨超声刀扁桃体切除术与低温等离子扁桃体切除术的优缺点、安全性及可行性。 方法 计算机检索中国知网(CNKI)、中国生物医学文献数据库(CBM)、万方数据库和Pubmed等数据库中国内外关于超声刀扁桃体切除术与低温等离子扁桃体切除术的随机对照试验。运用RevMan 5.3软件对两种手术方式在术中、术后指标进行Meta分析。 结果 共纳入8个随机对照试验,共722例患者。超声刀扁桃体切除术与低温等离子扁桃体切除术相比,术后出血率明显降低［SMD=0.30,95%CI(0.15, 0.600.11, 0.79), P=0.010 007］,而在手术时间、术中出血量、术后白膜开始脱落时间及术后疼痛评分等方面,超声刀组与等离子组差异无统计学意义。 结论 超声刀扁桃体切除可明显降低患者术后原发或继发出血的概率,改善患者术后的生活质量。     

Harmonic scalpel tonsillectomy versus monopolar diathermy tonsillectomy: a prospective study

For tonsillectomy, the ultrasonic harmonic scalpel has been purported to cause less tissue injury and postoperative morbidity while providing adequate levels of hemostasis. We undertook a prospective study to compare outcomes in 162 patients who had undergone harmonic scalpel tonsillectomy and 40 patients who had undergone monopolar diathermy tonsillectomy over a 33-month period. We found that patients in the harmonic scalpel group experienced significantly less intraoperative bleeding (5.0 vs. 16.5 ml; p < 0.0001). There was no clinically significant difference between the groups with respect to (1) the amount of operating time, (2) the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, dysphonia, and primary or secondary bleeding, and (3) the amount of time patients needed to resume normal diet and activities.     

A prospective study comparing PlasmaKnife with bipolar dissection tonsillectomy: a preliminary communication of an emerging technology

Objective: To clinically evaluate and compare the PlasmaKnife to bipolar electrocautery in paediatric tonsillectomy. Design: Prospective comparitive non‐randomised study. Setting: Central London teaching hospital with tertiary referrals. Participants: Forty‐three patients aged 3–12 years with recurrent tonsillitis or obstructive adenotonsillar hypertrophy awaiting a tonsillectomy were recruited into the study. Main outcome measures: Primary outcome was throat, ear and swallowing pain scores over 2 weeks. Secondary measures included: return to normal diet, return to normal activity, analgesic requirements, operation time and intraoperative blood loss. Results: Surgical dissection was similar between the two groups with minimal blood loss and comparable overall operative times. Median throat pain scores suggest PlasmaKnife to be less painful in the early postoperative period (at 8 h, P < 0.005) but, overall, did not quite reach statistical significance (Mann–Whitney U‐test). PlasmaKnife was similar to bipolar in all other measured categories. During the study, three secondary bleeds occurred in the PlasmaKnife group and all were managed conservatively. Conclusion: PlasmaKnife is a safe new technology with similar outcome to the established bipolar technique. This preliminary study finds PlasmaKnife to be an interesting instrument and warrants a larger randomised study to truly evaluate the potential advantages of lowered pain and early recovery attributed to this emerging technology.     

超声刀切除扁桃体167例

目的 探讨超声刀切除扁桃体的优势及应用价值.方法 回顾分析行超声刀扁桃体切除术167例患者病历资料,以及高频电刀扁桃体切除45例病历资料,对比两者手术时间、麻醉时间、术中出血以及术后疼痛情况.结果 超声刀切除扁桃体具有手术时间短、术中出血少、术后恢复快等优点.结论 超声刀切除扁桃体具有很大推广价值.     

超声刀扁桃体切除术的临床病理研究

目的　探讨超声刀扁桃体切除术的临床应用价值。方法　将40例需行扁桃体切除术的患者分为2组,采用自身对照。A组30例,患者右侧行超声刀扁桃体切除术,左侧行传统扁桃体剥离术;B组10例,右侧行超声刀扁桃体切除术,左侧行针式电刀扁桃体切除术。记录患者左右两侧的手术时间、术中出血量、白膜开始脱落的时间、术后出血发生率及疼痛评分。光学显微镜下观察扁桃体组织的损伤程度并测量其损伤深度。结果　A组超声刀的术中出血量、手术时间、术后疼痛均优于传统手术,但白膜开始脱落的时间稍延迟,差异有统计学意义;B组超声刀的术中出血和手术时间优于针式电刀,而术后疼痛、白膜开始脱落时间两者相比差异无统计学意义;两组患者的术后原发性及继发性出血率差异无统计学意义;3种术式对扁桃体组织的热损伤深度中位数分别为0.60、0.25、0.53 mm,差异有统计学意义。结论　超声刀扁桃体切除术是一种安全、有效的手术方式,值得临床推广应用。     

Effectiveness of the ultrasonic harmonic scalpel for tonsillectomy

The Ultracision harmonic scalpel (UHS) cuts and coagulates tissue with high-frequency ultrasound. We describe the results of our use of the UHS to perform tonsillectomies in 59 patients. The mean operative blood loss was 7 ml (range: 0 to 75); 56% of patients experienced no measurable blood loss. The mean length of operating time was 8 minutes and 10 seconds (range: 3:45 to 20:25). Patients were assessed for 2 weeks for postoperative pain on the basis of a 10-point linear analog scale. The mean pain score on postoperative day 1 was 4.7; the score peaked at 6.0 on day 4 and fell to less than 3.0 by day 11. Patients returned to full function in an average of 10.9 days (range: 3 to 15). Three patients experienced secondary hemorrhage, one of whom required surgical intervention. We found the UHS to be a well-designed and easy-to-use instrument. Operating time was short, blood loss was minimal, and the degree of early postoperative pain was low. We believe that our findings are encouraging and that the UHS might well have a place in the surgical armamentarium for tonsillectomy.     

Comparison of microdebrider subcapsular tonsillectomy to harmonic scalpel and electrocautery total tonsillectomy

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare microdebrider subcapsular tonsillectomy (MST) with total tonsillectomies either by harmonic scalpel (TTH) or electrocautery (TTE) in children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing from tonsillar hypertrophy. DESIGN: Retrospective review of prospectively collected data. SETTING: Tertiary academic hospital. PATIENTS: Eighty consecutive children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing from tonsillar hypertrophy who underwent MST between January and April of 2003 were compared with a smaller historical cohort of 25 patients who underwent TTEs and TTHs from January to December of 2001. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary: days to no narcotic pain medicine use and days to solid food intake; secondary: estimated blood loss, surgical time, and postoperative complications. RESULTS: Fifty-four patients who underwent MSTs and 25 patients who underwent total tonsillectomies met study criteria for a total of 79 patients. The cohorts showed no significant demographic differences between groups. The MST group had a significantly shorter duration of pain medicine use (3.7 +/- 0.5 days) than the TTE (7.0 +/- 0.6 days) or TTH groups (6.8 +/- 0.7 days; P < .001). The MST group (3.5 +/- 0.6 days) and the TTH group (3.6 +/- 0.8 days) achieved solid food intake faster than the TTE group (5.4 +/- 0.7 days; P = 0.004). There was a significantly higher estimated blood loss with the MST group (38.8 +/- 6.1 mL) than the TTH group (19 mL +/- 8.2) and the TTE group (15.1 +/- 7.4 mL; P < .001). TTH (27.3 +/- 3.1 minutes) took longer than MST (20.3 +/- 2.3 minutes) and TTE (21.9 +/- 2.8 minutes; P = .018). CONCLUSION: Microdebrider subcapsular tonsillectomy is valuable in treatment of children with tonsillar hypertrophy because of the decreased pain medicine use and more rapid return to solid food.     

The ultrasonically activated scalpel versus bipolar diathermy for tonsillectomy: a prospective, randomized trial

Among patients undergoing tonsillectomy, the ultrasonic scalpel has been reported to lead to less intraoperative blood loss than cold dissection, and less postoperative pain and faster recovery than monopolar electrocautery. However, the ultrasonic scalpel has not been compared with bipolar diathermy. The present study was a prospective, randomized, single-blind trial, comparing these two techniques with respect to postoperative pain. Twenty-one adults underwent tonsillectomy on one side using the ultrasonic scalpel, and on the other using bipolar diathermy. Pain scores were obtained on postoperative days 1, 2, 7 and week 3. There was no difference between the two treatments at any of the time points (P = 0.6047, 0.4018, 0.6047 and 0.5000, respectively). Inability to control bleeding with the ultrasonic scalpel resulted in the rescue use of an alternative technique of haemostasis in 14 cases. We conclude that the use of the ultrasonic scalpel in adult tonsillectomy is likely to be limited by its substantial costs and difficulties with haemostasis.     

A parallel group analysis of tonsillectomy using the harmonic scalpel vs electrocautery

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate efficiency and postoperative morbidity in tonsillectomy using the harmonic scalpel (HS) vs conventional electrocautery (EC). DESIGN: A retrospective medical chart review of all patients who underwent tonsillectomy at a single children's hospital during a 32-month period from January 2001 to August 2003. PATIENTS: The charts of 605 patients who underwent tonsillectomy or adenotonsillectomy were reviewed. The patients were stratified into 2 groups based on the dissecting instrument used (HS vs EC). Each group consisted of 2 subcategories based on age (< or =7 years and >7 years). Data collected included age, sex, operative indication, operative time, postanesthetic recovery room time, pain scale scores, postoperative admissions, and postoperative morbidities. RESULTS: There were significant differences in mean age (P<.001), mean weight (P<.001), and indication for surgery (P<.001) between the 2 methods: HS patients were younger, weighed less, and more often had obstructive symptoms as their primary operative indication compared with the EC group. Average operative times were not significantly different between methods. No differences were noted with respect to recovery time (HS group, P = .10; EC group, P = .30), postoperative oxygen requirements (HS group, P = .07; EC group, P = .09), and postoperative pain scores (HS group, P = .31; EC group, P = .58). There was a significant difference in postoperative admissions between the 2 methods in patients 7 years or younger (P = .005). Finally, we noted a significant difference in postoperative bleeding between the HS (2/292) and EC (13/313) methods when the data were compared per age group (P = .006), but the overall bleeding rate was not statistically significant owing to the small number of total bleeding instances (15/605). CONCLUSIONS: Recent prospective studies indicate that the HS provides advantages over conventional EC with respect to postoperative pain and return to normal activity. This study shows that HS tonsillectomy was as efficient as the conventional EC method. In addition, there was evidence that the rate of postoperative bleeding was significantly reduced by using the HS vs conventional EC.     

Randomized study comparing postoperative pain between coblation and bipolar scissor tonsillectomy

Coblation tonsillectomy has shown promising results with respect to postoperative pain when compared with other techniques. Our study was designed to compare this technique with bipolar scissor tonsillectomy. Forty adult patients with a history of chronic or recurrent tonsillitis referred for standard tonsillectomy were recruited and randomized into two groups. Twenty were operated with Coblator and 20 with bipolar scissors. Exclusion criteria were a history of quinsy, bleeding disorder, or any major health problems. All participants completed the study. Postoperative pain, return to normal diet, and estimated need for sick leave were utilized as parameters. Data on operative time, difficulty of tissue removal, and hemostasis were also analyzed. Operative time was longer (P < 0.001) and tissue removal as well as hemostasis control were more difficult (P = 0.005, P = 0.013) with Coblator than with bipolar scissors. Participants in Coblator group assessed higher pain scores 1 and 3 h postoperatively (P = 0.044, P = 0.036). From the time of extubation, patients had access to an opioid (fentanyl) via a self-controlled analgesia device. The number of doses of analgesics needed during the hospital stay was significantly higher in the Coblator group (P = 0.020). During the 14-day follow-up, no significant differences were found in pain scores, return to solid food or subjective working ability between the groups. Considering the overall outcome of the patients the results did not favor coblation technique over bipolar scissors.     

Harmonic scalpel versus bipolar tonsillectomy: a double-blind clinical trial

This is a double bind clinical trial which evaluated harmonic scalpel versus bipolar diathermy tonsillectomy The study was conducted at Diyarbakir government hospital, Diyarbakir, Turkey. The study population comprised 144 patients, aged 4–18 years (mean 9 years  ± 4.12 SD). All patients underwent tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy. The indications for tonsillectomy were obstructive sleep apnea (84 patients [58.3%]) and chronic tonsillitis (60 patients [41.7%]). All 144 patients were randomly divided into two groups: bipolar dissection (81 patients [56.2%] with mean age 8.98 years ± 4.22) and harmonic scalpel (63 patients [43.8%] with mean age 9 years ± 4.02). BD group showed statistically significantly less intraoperative bleeding (< 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference on postoperative day 1 but a statistically significant difference was determined on postoperative days 4, 7 and 14. There was no statistically significant difference between the two techniques with regard to immediate and delayed bleeding. The mean operative time was the same in both the groups. Bipolar dissection group showed statistically significant less intraoperative bleeding than harmonic scalpel group. An analysis of postoperative pain scores showed that the harmonic scalpel group pain scores are lower than the bipolar dissection group on all recorded days, and no statistically significant complications was seen in both groups. The results of this study indicate that the HS technique is associated with lower pain scores with the same complication rates as the BD technique.     

超声刀辅助扁桃体切除术与传统术式的对照研究

目的 探讨使用超声刀辅助扁桃体切除术的临床应用价值.方法 超声刀辅助扁桃体切除术组与常规手术对照组各35例患者,观察比较术中出血量、手术时间、术后疼痛程度、术后出血、术后开始脱膜的时间.结果 超声刀组术中出血量少(中位数为1ml),手术时间短(中位数为20 min),术后5d之内疼痛程度较轻(视觉模拟评分中位数从5分降到1分),与常规手术组比较差异均有统计学意义(P值均＜0.01).超声刀组术后无原发性及继发性出血,而常规手术组术后出现原发性及继发性出血各1例.术后开始脱膜的时间两组相比差异无统计学意义(P＞0.05).结论 超声刀在扁桃体切除术中的应用是安全、有效、可行的.     

超声刀在甲状腺手术中的应用

目的探讨超声刀在甲状腺手术的效果。方法对收治的34例甲状腺肿物采用超声刀手术,通过颈部小切口进行甲状腺肿物摘除术或腺叶切除术。采用病例对照研究方法,随机选取常规手术的34例患者为对照组。比较两组的切口长度、引流情况、并发症、住院费用、麻醉时间和出院时间等指标。结果超声刀组切口长3．2cm-4．3cm,平均3．8cm。比对照组平均减少3．2cm（t=17．65,P=0．000）。超声刀组患者伤口内不放置引流,对照组平均引流液47（10～110）ml。两组平均住院费用（7205元对比8054元）和出院时间（3．5天对比4．1天）统计学上差异无显著性（P=0．137和P=0．228）。超声刀组手术麻醉时间95分钟,比对照组延长了14分钟（P=0．018）。两组各有1例出现喉返神经麻痹症状,超声刀组有2例患者发生表皮轻微烫伤（x^2=0．273,P=0．602）。两组患者术后均无伤口出血、积液、感染以及低钙血症等并发症。结论超声刀甲状腺手术不增加手术并发症。患者的颈部切口小,有利于美观。超声刀凝血功能强,避免了放置引流,且伤口内无线头遗留,手术创伤小,有利于患者的恢复。