Volume : IV, Issue : XII, December - 2015

A comparative study of diathermy and scalpel incisions in abdominal surgeries

Dr G S Mahesh

Abstract :

Background: Diathermy is widely used in surgical practice for tissue dissection, cutting, and coagulation – hemostasis. The fear of excessive scarring and poor wound healing had stopped its widespread use for skin incision. Availability of very good diathermy tools in recent times , some surgeons have started using even for skin incisions. Aims and Objectives: This study was done to compare the outcome of diathermy incisions versus scalpel incisions in general surgery with regard to postoperative pain, postoperative wound infection rate. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in the surgical unit of SIMS. A total of 100 patients were taken in the study. Two groups were made as group A and group B, group A consisted of patients who underwent scalpel incision (50 patients) and group B who underwent diathermy incision (50). Variables analyzed were postoperative pain and post operative wound infection rate. All patients aged from 20 years to 60 years who underwent elective surgery (appendectomy,cholecystectomy,and inguinal hernia ) were included in the study. The cases not included in the study were, those who were taken as emergency, previous scarred abdomen. The Standard antiseptic protocol for skin preparation was followed to both the groups. Results: The results showed significantly less pain postoperatively with diathermy incisions over scalpel incisions. Early postoperative pain using visual analouge scale***VAS) was used to assess and found that the pain was markedly reduced during first 24–48 hours in group A . Postoperative wound infection rate was statistically insignificant and almost same in both the groups. Conclusion: Diathermy skin incision in elective surgery is found to be better over scalpel use as it results in less early postoperative pain, insignificant wound infection and early healing

Keywords :

Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijsr  

Cite This Article:

Dr G S Mahesh A Comparative Study of Diathermy and Scalpel Incisions in Abdominal Surgeries International Journal of Scientific Research, Vol : 4, Issue : 12 December 2015

Number of Downloads : 1094

References :