ELECTIVE MIDLINE LAPAROTOMY

COMPARISON OF DIATHERMY AND SCALPEL INCISIONS

Abstract

Objectives: To compare the diathermy incision with scalpel incision in patients undergoing midline elective laparotomy. Design of Study: A prospective, experimental comparative study. Place and Duration: Department of surgery, PNS Shifa Karachi, from March 2007 to June 2008. Patients and Methods: A total of 100 patients were included in the study, and equally divided into 2 groups. Group A received scalpel incision while in group B diathermy was employed to incise all layers. Peroperative parameters including, incision time and blood loss were calculated. Postoperatively, pain was assessed by visual analogue score and wound infection documented. Results: Both groups included fifty patients each out of the total 44 females and 56 were males, with similar gender preposition in both the groups. Mean age of patients in scalpel group was 48.78 (±14.47) while it was 44.92 (±15.87) in diathermy group. The mean incision related blood loss in Scalpel group was 1.53 (±0.20) ml/cm2 and in Diathermy group was 1.43 (±0.20) ml/cm2, showing significantly less bleeding in diathermy group (p-value= 0.014). Diathermy group, with incision related time of 6.20 sec/cm2 (±0.97 sec/cm2), was significantly quicker (p-value= 0.003) than scalpel incision, with incision time of 6.76 sec/cm2 (±0.84 sec/cm2). Postoperative pain scores, recorded daily over five days, showed insignificant difference between the two groups. Conclusions: Diathermy, employed for midline laparotomy, is quicker and hemostatic, compared to the scalpel. The two are, however, similar in terms of wound infection and postoperative pain.