Post Tonsillectomy Pain of Bipolar Electrocautery and Coldsteel Dissection: A Randomized Prospective Comparative Study

Backgrounds and objectives: Tonsillectomy is regarded as one of the most common surgical operation carried out by otolaryngologists worldwide. Pain is one of the most common troubling problems both the patients and surgeons have to face postoperatively. The study aim is to compare pain scores after surgeries between bipolar diathermy and cold steel techniques. Patients and methods: This is a comparative prospective study conducted at Azadi Teaching hospital – Department of otolaryngology - Head and neck surgery in DuhokKurdistan Region / Iraq, from September 2016 to February 2017. 40 patients have been included in this study and they randomly selected into two groups, group A (20 patients) underwent tonsillectomy by cold steel method and group B (20 patients) by diathermy method. Results: Data reveled that there was non-significant difference in pain between the two groups in the day of surgery and st postoperative day. Pain score have significantly became different in day 2 and day 3 postoperatively (p=0.01, p=0.002) respectively, which mandate the addition of Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to restore the pain difference to be non-significant again. Pain outcome is more common in patients with recurrent tonsillitis regardless of type of surgery. Conclusion: Bipolar diathermy tonsillectomies is considered a good alternative procedure for the old cold steel technique with insignificant difference in pain scores especially after the addition of Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with no recorded bleeding issues.