Comparison of Diathermy and Coblation Tonsillectomy in Children

Objective: Tonsillectomy is one of the most common operations in children. Although coblation and diathermy are common, their superiority to the classical cold curettage method is still controversial. In this study, the authors aim to compare coblation and diathermy tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy. Methods: A total of 233 children aged 2-12 were enrolled in this study. For this study, the authors used diathermy in 124 children and coblation in 109 children. All procedures were performed by the same surgeon, and postoperative follow-up was done by the same surgeon for 20 days. Average gender and age distributions were similar between diathermy and coblation groups (P = .052). Results: Operation times were shorter and intraoperative blood loss was lower in the coblation group. Primary hemorrhage did not occur in either group. Late post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage occurred in 3 cases in the diathermy group and 3 cases in the coblation group. Conclusion: The authors conclude that there is a learning curve when using the coblator and that coblation intracapsuler total tonsillectomy offers improved intraoperative hemostasis and better operative speed compared to diathermy extracapsuler total tonsillectomy. Keywords: Coblation total tonsillectomy, diathermy extracapsuler total tonsillectomy, extracapsuler tonsillectomy, intracapsuler tonsillectomy