Scalpel versus electrocautery for Herniorrhaphy Incision: A randomized controlled trail

Abstract

Background: Electrocautery is widely used for incision and is considered safe, irrespective of the surgical procedure. Objective: The aim of this study is to compare postoperative scar complications following scalpel and electrocautery incision in patients who underwent herniorrhaphy. Method: This study was a randomized controlled trail performed on 120 patients referred to (XXX) for herniorrhaphy. Sixty patients underwent hernia repair using scalpel and electrocautery incision. Postoperative pain, wound infection and scar-associated complications were assessed in all the patients at the time of suture removal and follow-up. The data were analyzed using SPSS v 18 and p-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Result: The two groups were age-matched, and no significant difference was reported in terms of hypertrophic and colloidal scar among the two groups. Additionally, the differences in the pain intensity were also not significant among the groups. No postoperative infection was reported in our study. Conclusion: According to our findings, electrocautery incision is as safe as scalpel incision for herniorrhaphy with regard to scar complication and wound infection. The detailed study including intraoperative parameters can give better conclusions. Highlights

Mean Postoperative Pain in patients with Elective Midline Laparotomies Using Either Scalpel or Diathermy for Incision

“…The findings of our study agreed with those of the study conducted by Zarei F et al which revealed statistically significant mean pain scores on postoperative days 1, 2, and 3 for the scalpel group of 3.92±1.24, 3.10±1.04 and 2.40±0.20 respectively, and scores of 2.42±0.40, 1.22±0.18 and 1.01±0.11 for the diathermy group. 18 On postoperative days 1, 2, and 3 correspondingly a different study conducted by Yadav SK et al reports mean scores of 3.13, 2.69, and 2.34 for the scalpel group and 1.68, 1.89, and 2.48 for the diathermy group 19 .…”

Comparing the intraoperative and postoperative complications of the scalpel and electrocautery techniques for severing the inner layers of the lumbar disc during discectomy surgery

“…Also, in the Shah Akbari et al ( 18 ) study, scar tissue was more significant in the electrocautery group than in the scalpel group ( 18 ). Zarei et al ( 19 ), with a 3-month follow-up after abdominal hernia surgery, reported no significant difference between the two groups regarding wound healing speed and scar tissue ( 19 ). Ismail et al ( 6 ) reported comparable findings from a meta-analysis of 41 studies ( 6 ).…”

“…In their study, Shah Akbari et al (18) found that electrocautery-induced thermal injury to adjacent tissues results in the formation of hypertrophic tissue in the surgical area (18). However, in the study by Zarei et al (19), there was no statistically significant difference in wound healing speed and patient satisfaction with cosmetic results (19). Furthermore, according to Nagargoje et al (10), using electrocautery in tissue cutting increases the surgical time and negatively affects patient wound healing (10).…”