title: Postoperative pain in tonsillectomy: comparison of ultrasonic tonsillectomy versus blunt dissection tonsillectomy.
abstract: Intraoperative blood loss, postoperative pain, and postoperative appetite were compared between 15 adult patients who underwent tonsillectomy using an ultrasonically activated scalpel (UT) and 15 adult patients who underwent blunt dissection tonsillectomy with cold steel instruments (BT). The average intraoperative blood loss of the UT group was 4.6 +/- 1.9 ml (mean +/- standard deviation), while that of BT group was 41.9 +/- 12.9 ml. This difference was highly statistically significant (p < 0.0001). In contrast, there were no significant differences in the VAS pain and appetite scores between patients who underwent UT and those who underwent BT on any day in the 6-day postoperative period. Our current results show that UT is a safe technique, and we believe that it should be considered a useful alternative for tonsil surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Toyoko Hospital, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, 3-435 Kosugi-cho, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki city 211-0063, Japan.
authors.forename: Natsuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sugiura
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ochi
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Komatsuzaki
authors.forename: Hirohito
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nishino
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohashi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001066:Appetite; D016063:Blood Loss, Surgical; D004210:Dissection / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014068:Tonsillectomy / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014464:Ultrasonic Therapy / Q000379:methods*