TONSILLECTOMY IN PAEDIATRIC POPULATION

Objectives: To compare mean operative time and Intra operative blood lossbetween bipolar electro dissection and cold dissection tonsillectomy in paediatric population.Study Design: Randomized controlled trial. Place and Duration: Department of ENT and Headand Neck Surgery, Continental Medical College, Hospital Lahore, from 1 January 2015 to 30September 2015. Materials and Methods: This study included 164 patients of age group 4 to12 years of either gender undergoing tonsillectomy. The patients were divided into two equalgroups designated as A and B each having 82 patients using simple random sampling. Patientsin group A were operated for tonsillectomy by bipolar electrocautry while group B underwenttonsillectomy by cold steel dissection method. All patients in both groups were assessed foroperating time and intra-operative blood loss. Results: Out of 82 cases of Bipolar DissectionGroup 49(60%) patients were male and 33(40%) patients were female. Whereas in 82 casesof Cold Dissection Group 51(62%) patients were male and 31(38%) patients were female.Mean age of patients was 7.2(SD ± 1.97) years. Mean operation time was 15 minutes withstandard deviation ± 1.21 in group A as compared to group B where mean operation time was20 minutes with standard deviation ± 1.87. Mean blood loss was 7 ml with standard deviation± 2.53 in patients of group A as compared to Patients in group B who mean blood loss of 30ml with standard deviation ± 3.46. Group A had statistically significant lower operative time andblood loss than group B. Conclusion: Tonsillectomy with bipolar electro dissection method ismuch better than cold steel dissection method. It has an advantage of less blood loss duringsurgery. It significantly reduces intra operative time.