• Michael Vaiman, Haim Gavrieli, and Daniel Krakovski.
• Department of Otolaryngology, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Affiliated to Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Zeriffin, Israel. vaimed@yahoo.com
• ORL J. Otorhinolaryngol. Relat. Spec. 2007 Jan 1; 69 (4): 256-64.

BackgroundCombined surface electromyography (sEMG) and visual analogue scale (VAS) pain assessment was performed on randomly assigned adults following tonsillectomy to research the effect of fibrin sealant (Group 1, n = 25), CO(2) laser (Group 2, n = 18) and electrocoagulation (Group 3, n = 40) on postsurgical pain.MethodsTiming and amplitude of sEMG activity of masseter, infrahyoid and submandibular muscles were measured during swallowing simultaneously with VAS assessment and compared to normative database.ResultsPostsurgical electric activity of masseter and infrahyoid was significantly higher in comparison with normative database. sEMG and VAS data showed that tonsillectomy ended with fibrin sealant caused less pain than laser or electrocoagulation techniques with no correlation between the VAS score and duration of swallows.ConclusionTonsillectomy affects muscle activity significantly by involving additional muscles (infrahyoid) in swallowing. Combined sEMG and VAS data indicated electrocautery as the most painful, laser as less painful, and fibrin sealant as the least painful technique.

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