ABSTRACT
Tonsillectomy is one of the most commonly performed otolaryngology procedures. Several techniques for this procedure have been described including blunt dissection, electrocautery, laser, electrosurgical scissors, co-blation and ultrasonic dissection. Therefore this study was done to show the comparison between Coblation Tonsillectomy using [ENTEC EVAC 70; ARTHROCARE] and Traditional Dissection technique in a prospective, blinded fashion. This study was done on 30 children between 5 and 12 years of age with recurrent acute tonsillitis. Each participant had one tonsil removed by coblation and the other by traditional technique. We receded, by side, the surgical time, blood loss, operative difficulty, pain in postoperative days [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14] and the side that each patient preferred. Coblation tonsillectomy was found significantly less painful than dissection tonsillectomy on day 1 [P<0.001], day 2 [P=0.003] and day 3 [0-0.98]. For all subsequent postoperative days, there was no significant difference in pain levels between the two techniques. The coblation side was preferred by 26 of 30 patients