NCT01496404

Electrocautery Versus Scalpel for Skin Incisions

A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing the Cosmetic Outcome of Electrocautery Versus Scalpel for Surgical Skin Incisions

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 66 (actual)
• Sponsor: St. Paul's Hospital, Canada · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 19 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The aim of this research project is to compare electrocautery to scalpel for laparotomy skin incisions, with the following objectives: 1. To investigate whether electrocautery produces a cosmetically inferior surgical scar. 2. To compare the rates of wound infection with each technique. 3. To determine if electrocautery results in less postoperative pain. Our null hypothesis is that electrocautery is equivalent to scalpel for creating skin incisions; with respect to wound cosmesis, wound infection rate, and post-operative pain.

Conditions

• Wound Complication
• Surgical Wound Infection
• Post-operative Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
PROCEDURE	Electrocautery	Electrocautery using cutting mode of epidermis and dermis of skin.
PROCEDURE	Scalpel	Incising skin (epidermis and dermis) with scalpel.

Timeline

• Start date: 2012-01-01
• Primary completion: 2013-08-01
• Completion: 2013-08-01
• First posted: 2011-12-21
• Last updated: 2014-07-22

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada