Postoperative Pain and 14-Day Recovery in Children Undergoing Adenotonsillectomy: Low Thermal Damage Device Versus Electrosurgery

This was a randomized controlled trial of low thermal damage device versus traditional electrosurgery in children 3 to 17 years old with a clinical diagnosis of sleep disordered breathing, obstructive sleep apnea with adenotonsillar hypertrophy, or recurrent adenotonsillitis. Pain score (Wong-Baker FACES pain scale) was recorded each morning before eating, drinking, or administering pain medication for 14 days postoperatively. Seventy-five children were enrolled. There was no difference in the rate of decrease in pain scores. A significant interaction between rate of pain decrease and number of pain medication doses was present (P < .0001). Median number of pain medication doses was greater with electrosurgery (36, range: 7-49) versus low thermal device (21, range: 2-124; P = .001). Pain scores reached 0 after a median of 7 days (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.2-8.6) for low thermal device and 9 days (95% CI, 8.0-10.0) for electrosurgery (P = .67). One child randomized to electrosurgery was withdrawn due...