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.