Comparative study between coblation and dissection tonsillectomy in children

Abstract

Tonsillectomy is one of the most frequently undertaken procedures in otolaryngology. Several techniques for this procedure have been described including blunt dissection, electrocautery, laser, coblation and ultrasonic dissection. The major postoperative morbidity includes pain and hemorrhage. Pain is the result of disruption of mucosa and glossopharyngeal and/or vagal nerve fibers followed by inflammation and spasm of the pharyngeal muscles that leads to ischemia and a protracted cycle of pain. The difference in mean pain scores for the two groups was very significant. With the coblation group there was a more rapid return to low pain scores than the dissection group. A noticeable difference was found in the day of return to a normal activity/ school: day (4.73) for coblation group (range 4-9), compared with day (7.52) for dissection group (range 6-9), (p value <0.05) (table 5, figure 4) the day of return to normal diet was correspondent to the day of return to normal activity/school. Coblation tonsillectomy offers less operative time, less intra operative blood loss, less post operative pain and faster return to normal diet and activity when compared with the dissection method. Key Words: Coblation; dissection; tonsillectomy; children