title: The comparison of the harmonic focus shears device with conventional clamp binding in total thyroidectomy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Harmonic Focus (HF) is an ultrasonic device developed most recently for thyroid surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the surgical completeness and outcome of total thyroidectomy in two patient groups. One group was treated by HF and one by Conventional Dissection (CD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Total thyroidectomy was performed in 38 patients with CD, and in 38 patients with HF.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When compared to conventional haemostasis, a reduction was observed in the duration of surgery in the HF group, and the amount of blood loss was reduced by 29%, and 46%, respectively. The number of intraoperative device changes was decreased by 70%. The utilisation of special materials to obtain haemostasis was also significantly decreased. HF was found to be as safe as the conventional haemostasis technique.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study has demonstrated the beneficial effects and relative safety of HF in thyroid surgery. Further studies are needed about the financial benefits provided by reductions in human resources, and in materials employed for haemostasis.
authors.affiliation: Vocational School of Health Services, Istanbul Gelisim University Avcılar, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fatih
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Çiftçi
keywords: Total thyroidectomy; harmonic focus shears; ultrasonic dissection