Comparison Of Harmonic Scalpel Method With Conventional Procedure For Intraoperative Blood Loss During Thyroidectomy Among Pakistani Patients

Background: Thyroid glands have a complex blood supply, so it becomes necessary to have a proper hemostasis during its surgery. In conventional method, hemostasis is secured by using ties and sutures. Aim: To compare the intra-operative bleeding in Pakistani patients with multinodular goiter undergoing thyroidectomy with harmonic scalpel method versus Conventional hemostasis. Study design: It was prospective randomized controlled trial. Methodology: All patients underwent thyroidectomy for Multinodular goiter were distributed into two assemblies, Group-A (Harmonic-Scalpel Method) and Group-B (Conventional Technique). In Group-A, harmonic scalpel ligated all thyroid vessels. In Group-B, inferior middle and superior were tied using silk sutures 3/0, and all other vessels were sutured by 4/0 or electro cauterized. The two groups were compared for Intra-operative blood loss. Results: The mean blood loss of patients in group-A was 70.03±5.70ml and in group-B was 96.43±5.93 ml with pvalue of 0.00001 which is statistically significant. All the data was entered and processed by analysis made using SPSS v23.0. Conclusion: Harmonic scalpel represents a safe alternative to conventional technique with a significant reduction of blood loss in thyroidectomy. Keywords: Harmonic scalpel, blood loss, thyroidectom