Comparing the complication of electrocautery and scalpel methods in surgical incisions of hysterectomy surgery

Aims: Surgical incisions have been performed by a scalpel for many years, and today the use of an alternative method, catheter incision, is increasing daily. This study aimed to evaluate the complications of use of electrocautery and scalpel in surgical incisions of the abdominal wall in hysterectomy surgery Materials and Methods: The present study is single-blind that was performed on 92 eligible women undergoing hysterectomy surgery with transverse incision in Imam Sajjad Hospital, Yasuj, Iran. Patients were randomly divided into two groups: hysterectomy with a scalpel (46 samples) and electrocautery (46 samples). Then, post-surgery infection after the surgery, the extent of wound separation after a month, pain intensity in the first, second and eighth days after the surgery, blood loss (weighting consumed blood gauzes before and after surgery), in both groups of scalpel and electrocautery were measured and compared. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS software version 19. Findings: The two groups were similar in terms of age, cause of hysterectomy and type of delivery. The results did not show significant difference between the two groups (scalpel and electrocautery) in postoperative infection rate, incision time, and wound separation rate. However, significant difference was indicated in distribution of pain intensity in the electrocautery group on the first (P <0.001), second (P <0.001) and eighth day after surgery (P = 0.03), and blood loss (P= 0.017) which were reported significantly lower than in the scalpel group. Conclusion: According to the results of present study, using an electrocautery incision reduced pain and blood loss, and did not cause others complications afterwards, so electrocautery can be introduced as a suitable alternative to scalpel surgery