title: Effects of cooling the pharyngeal mucosa after bipolar scissors tonsillectomy on postoperative pain.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Bipolar scissors tonsillectomy followed by cooling down the pharyngeal mucosa has advantages in terms of postoperative pain and intraoperative blood loss compared with cold dissection.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to compare the postoperative pain between bipolar scissors tonsillectomy followed by cooling the pharyngeal mucosa and a traditional cold dissection.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 189 patients aged more than 16 years were operated due to habitual tonsillitis, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and IgA nephropathy. Of these, 79 patients were operated using bipolar scissors followed by cooling the pharyngeal mucosa with 4°C saline for 10 min just after the removal of tonsils. The other 110 patients underwent cold dissection tonsillectomy. Outcome measures were intraoperative blood loss, operative time, postoperative pain evaluated on a visual analog scale, and postoperative secondary hemorrhage.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significantly lower levels of intraoperative blood loss and less postoperative pain were obtained in bipolar scissors tonsillectomy followed by cooling the pharyngeal mucosa compared with cold dissection. Postoperative hemorrhage needing hemostatic surgery occurred in 2 of 79 patients who underwent bipolar scissors tonsillectomy with cooling, while it occurred in 1 of 110 patients after cold dissection. However, the difference was not statistically significant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Suita Municipal Hospital, Japan. ahorii@ent.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Arata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Horii
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirose
authors.forename: Ryuichi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mochizuki
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawamoto
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kitahara
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawashima
authors.forename: Atsuhiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Uno
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Imai
authors.forename: Suetaka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishiike
authors.forename: Hidenori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inohara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007036:Hypothermia, Induced / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D010614:Pharynx; D020545:Respiratory Mucosa; D014068:Tonsillectomy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014069:Tonsillitis / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult