1984 Volume 30 Issue 4 Pages 504-512
A newly developed heated scalpel (Shaw scalpel by Oximetric Inc.) was used in oral surgeries such as radical neck dissection and surgical excisions of oral benign and malignant tumors in order to evaluate its usefulness and critical points. This scalpel was devised to perform incision and hemostasis simultaneously. The manipulation was very excellent in the radical neck dissection and operations in the anterior half of the oral cavity but unfavorable in the narrow operative field such as the posterior half of the oral cavity. The hemostatic capacity was relatively high, showing a favorable hemostasis against veins of 1.0 mm or less and arteries of 0.5 mm or less in diameter with the scalpel heated at 140°C-190°C. The hemorrhagic volume was reduced to about half of the usual volume when the scalpel was used in the radical neck dissection. On the other hand, a large quantity of exudate was observed after the operation with Shaw scalpel, which persisted for a while. This seemed to be due to a temporal burn of the tissue surrounding the incised area from the histological findings. Based on these evidences, Shaw scalpel is considered to be useful for the surgical procedure in the oral field, although a sufficient attention must be paid not to overheat the surrounding tissues.
