Blood Loss of Scalpel versus Cutting Cautery in Bilateral Reduction Mammoplasty Procedures

Abstract

Cutting electrocautery may be used for the dissection of breast tissue in bilateral reduction mammoplasty procedures without adverse effects on wound healing. It has been suggested that the use of cutting cautery reduces perioperative blood loss; however, very few studies have been performed to verify this assumption. This study compares the blood loss using cutting cautery with scalpel dissection. The study analyzed the preoperative and one-day postoperative hemoglobin levels of 22 randomly chosen patients dissected with scalpel at University Hospital during 1983, and compared these results with results obtained from 39 randomly chosen patients dissected using cutting cautery in 1993. The results show a difference in the mean postoperative result of 5.77 g/L, which is significant at the 95% confidence level with P>0.03 and P<0.04.