Post-operative pain control with topical steroid injection after hot dissection tonsillectomy.

Electrocautery excision (hot dissection) and scissor/snare dissection (cold dissection are two popular methods used in tonsillectomy. The former causes relatively more post-operative pain but takes less time to perform and is associated with less intra-operative and immediate post-operative bleeding than the latter. To explore post-operative pain control in patients undergoing electrodissection tonsillectomy, a prospective, randomized, one-blind study was designed involving local injections of steroid into the pillar and tonsil bed. The pain levels among the topical injection, deltoid muscle injection and the control group were scored and analyzed. Local steroid injection was found to significantly abate the post-tonsillectomy pain.