Comparison of electrosurgical versus scalpel skin incision in inguinal hernioplasty in terms of early postoperative pain

Objective: To compare early mean postoperative pain following use of diathermy and scalpel for making skin incision in inguinal hernioplasty

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Study design: Double blind, randomized controlled trial

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Place and Duration of study: Department of General surgery, Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi, from September 2011 to February 2012

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Methodology: A total of 60 patients who underwent either diathermy skin incision [group A n=30] or scalpel skin incision [group B n=30] were analyzed. Early postoperative pain was compared in both the groups by using visual analogue scale. The inclusion criteria were all adult male and female patients who underwent elective or emergency inguinal hernioplasty under spinal anesthesia. The exclusion criteria were patients with recurrent inguinal hernias and patients operated under general or local anesthesia

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Results: Mean VAS was 2.15 + 1.200 in the diathermy group and p value was 0.00, which was significant.In the scalpel group mean VAS was 4.95 + 1.373. Mean percentage of pain score in scalpel was 49.5%, whereas in diathermy group its was 21.5%, which is significantly lower than the scalpel group

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Conclusion: Diathermy incision has significant advantage compared with scalpel in terms of reduced early postoperative pain