Comparison of Cold Dissection Technique and Needle Monopolar Electrocautery Tonsillectomy

Comparison of cold and hot tonsillectomy carried out with needle-point tip monopolar electrocautery: a prospective, randomized, blinded, controlled (paired design) : A Randomized Clinical Trial

Tonsillectomy surgery techniques are basically divided into cold steel knife dissection and other (hot) techniques where surgeons use electrocautery and other contemporary technological devices. Pros / cons of hot and cold techniques have been long researched in the literature. Parameters are: cost, postoperative bleeding rate, postoperative pain. (Leinbach RF) Latest research proved that monopolar electrocautery (EC) is ideal when cost/postoperative bleeding rate ratio is concerned. (Cunningham LC) Although EC presents as a viable option, hot techniques - although providing good advantages - result with a more painful postoperative period. Trade-off with electrosurgery is the heat generated to cut/coagulate the tissue also causes a variable amount of tissue necrosis consequent to thermal injury. This pain is associated with the thermal injury and consequent tissue necrosis. (Hetzler D) Needle electrocautery tips are thinner compared to conventional bovie tip. Their surface area is smaller and according to the study carried out by Farnworth et al. (Farnworth TK) cause reduced thermal injury compared to conventional blade tip.

The investigators' aim in this study is to compare cold-knife dissection + bipolar diathermy tonsillectomy with needle tip EC monopolar cautery. Study design was prospective, randomised, single-blinded and controlled (paired). Either right tonsil was operated with standard-needle electrocautery, contralateral side was operated with cold-technique; or vice-versa. Which side received which treatment was randomly assigned (Aksoy F)

Surgical Technique

Both tonsils were injected with lidocaine and epinephrine infiltration to anterior tonsillar plica before the operation. All surgeries were performed by the primary investigator (BO) under x2.5 loupes. Force 2 Electrosurgical Generator (The Valley Lab, Boulder,CO) was used to power both the monopolar and bipolar electrocautery. Bipolar cautery was used (25-30 Watts) in accordance with the literature. Monopolar electrocautery settings were adjusted to 'Blend 1' which is a summation of the coagluation and cutting waveforms (75% cutting, 25% coagulation). Cut power was adjusted to 10W, whereas coagulation power was set to 12 Watts.