The Thermal Safety Profile of a New Bipolar Vessel Sealing Device for Thyroid Surgery.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Bipolar electrocautery devices used to achieve intraoperative hemostasis carry risk of imparting thermal energy to adjacent tissue, leading to postoperative morbidity. The aim of this study was to compare a new vessel sealing device, the CoolSeal™ Reveal (Bolder Surgical, Louisville, Colorado), with an established industry standard device, the LigaSure™ Exact Dissector (Valleylab, Boulder, Colorado), to assess their safety and the extent to which they impart thermal damage to tissue during thyroid surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Vascular bundles associated with the thyroid gland in anesthetized sheep were exposed and sealed with a single activation of each device and excised en bloc. Additionally, vascular structures of the sheep were also sealed 0, 1, or 2mm adjacent to the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN). Vascular and RLN samples were processed for histopathologic evaluation and assessed for extent of thermal injury, seal width, and coagulative changes. RESULTS: The mean thermal injury extent across all sample sizes and vessel types was significantly lower for the CoolSeal™ Reveal device (547.2 ± 27.9µm) compared to the LigaSure™ device (802.7± 48.6µm) (p<0.001). Seal widths were significantly smaller in samples sealed with the CoolSeal™ Reveal device (899.0 ± 14.9µm) than samples sealed with the LigaSure™ device (1645.3 ± 160.3µm) (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The CoolSeal™ Reveal device demonstrates significantly lower thermal spread in vivo compared to the LigaSure™ Exact Dissector. These results indicate that the CoolSeal™ Reveal is an effective tool for sealing blood vessels and minimizing thermal damage to adjacent structures during delicate surgeries or in narrow surgical fields associated with the thyroid gland.