BETTER TONSILLECTOMY

There is late breaking research out that shows a new way to perform tonsillectomies in children is much less painful.
There are 400,000 tonsillectomies performed each year in the u.s. It is the second most common pediatric surgery performed in this country. But it can be a painful after the operation. Now, a new approach called coblation can limit the discomfort significantly.

There is late breaking research out that shows a new way to perform tonsillectomies in children is much less painful. There are 400,000 tonsillectomies performed each year in the u.s. It is the second most common pediatric surgery performed in this country. But it can be a painful after the operation. Now, a new approach called coblation can limit the discomfort significantly.

Roslin Consuellos is glad her son Ethan had a tonsillectomy even though she knew it could have been a long, painful recovery. “He’s doing great no snoring we don’t even hear him.” “It can be a rough recovery after having the tonsils out so anything we can do to make it better is a big improvement,” says Dr. David Walner, a pediatric ear nose and throat surgeon.

Now, new research presented at the American Academy of Otolaryngology annual meeting shows there is now a better, less painful method for performing the surgery.
Tonsillectomies have been done for the same way for essentially the past forty years, either using a cold scalpel, or using electro artery, which is when you burn the tissue away, but these can cause problems including bleeding, swelling and pain.

This new procedure called coblation uses radiofrequency energy in combination with a salt water solution that gently cuts the tonsil tissue without damaging surrounding tissue.
It works by giving the salt water solution’s particles enough energy that they can actually break the molecular bonds of the tonsil tissue, and essentially dissolving it…creating a cut, but at a cool temperature.

“There’s less thermal injury, less deep tissue injury, and thus less pain,” states Dr. Walner, who authored the study which looked at how quickly children return to normal diet following either standard surgery or the coblation technique. “In all the categories the coblation device was an improvement by about two days, where the average child has seven to ten days after tonsillectomy now we can bring this down to five to seven days and some even better than that.”

Another study presented at the same meeting found patients, in New York and elsewhere, who underwent coblation tonsillectomy returned to normal activity seventy percent earlier when compared to standard surgery involving burning the tissue.

Ethan had the coblation surgery, which impressed his mom. “Within 24 to 48 hours he was able to eat chips and pizza,” exclaims Roslin.

Coblation was approved in 2001 by the FDA, and currently around 20 percent of tonsillectomies are done using this technique. Coblation is used for a variety of other surgeries, including spinal and dermatological surgeries.