La Jolla, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Stanford, Calif. Background: The authors investigated thermal injury depth, inflammation, and scarring in human abdominal skin by comparing the histology of incisions made with a standard “cold” scalpel blade, conventional electrosurgery, and the PEAK PlasmaBlade, a novel, low-thermal-injury electrosurgical instrument. Methods: Approximately 6 and 3 weeks...

CONTEXT Oncosurgery is an emerging branch with the set goals of prolonging the life and ensuring the best possible quality of life to the surviving patient. The use of harmonic scalpel has proved to be beneficial in a variety of surgeries but its role in breast surgery is still controversial. AIMS We conducted this study to compare the intraoperative and postoperative outcomes in modified rad...

Introduction: This study aimed to compare operation time, intraoperative bleeding and postoperative pain between cold dissection tonsillectomy and harmonic scalpel tonsillectomy.  Materials and Methods: In this single-blinded clinical trial, 32 patients aged 14–48 were enrolled. Each patient randomly underwent tonsillectomy using the harmonic scalpel on one side and cold dissection on the other...

Electrocautery has a potential risk of serious pacemaker dysfunction in patients with implanted pacemaker. Here we present the safe and efficient use of ultrasonic scalpel (Harmonic scalpel) for the first time in a patient with implanted pacemaker undergoing open-heart reoperation. q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

We conducted a prospective, double-blind clinical trial to evaluate the differences in operating time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative pain at 3 hours and 1 week, and delayed (>24 hr) bleeding associated with ultrasonic harmonic scalpel tonsillectomy and conventional tonsillectomy. The study was carried out on 28 patients with recurrent tonsillitis and/or adenotonsillar hypertrophy who...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to retrospectively examine the postoperative pulmonary fistula as a complication after the use of either electrocautery or a harmonic scalpel without stapling devices. PATIENTS AND METHODS The subjects of this study consisted of 28 patients who received a segmentectomy for a pulmonary malignant tumor, 25 cases of lung cancer and 3 of metastatic lung tumor....

OBJECTIVE We developed a thoracoscopic internal mammary artery harvest technique using an ultrasonic scalpel, the Harmonic Scalpel (Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Cincinnati, OH). This is the first report of 9 month follow-up using this technique. METHODS The Harmonic Scalpel is activated ultrasonically by vibrating at 55000 Hz. Compared with electrocautery, lower heat (<100 degrees C) and less smoke ...