THE EFFECT OF FIBRIN SEALANT HEMOSTASIS ON POSTOPERATIVE PAIN IN TONSILLECTOMY

Pain following tonsillectomy is an important problem. It is caused by the surgical trauma of excision and haemostasis. Numerous surgical and pharmacological solutions have been tried, with disappointing results . Fibrin sealant is a widely used atraumatic haemostatic agent. This s tudy aims to determine whether tonsillectomy with fibrin sealant haemo stasis results in less post-operative pain than that with the conventi onal technique of diathermy. Fifty consecutive adult patients undergoi ng tonsillectomy were prospectively studied. They were randomized to r eceive either fibrin sealant or diathermy haemostasis. Other pain vari ables were controlled. Pain was measured by a visual linear analogue s cale and inter-incisor distance on both the day of operation and the f irst post-operative day. The patients and pain measurer were blind to the randomization. The results showed that tonsillectomy with fibrin s ealant haemostasis was significantly (P < 0.05) less painful than that with diathermy on both days studied and by both methods of pain measu rement.