Healing comparison of porcine cutaneous incisions made with cold steel scalpel, standard electrosurgical blade, and a novel tissue dissector

BACKGROUND: Standard electrosurgery provides superior hemostasis compared to a cold steel scalpel, but inferior tissue healing. A novel electrosurgical blade with an advanced waveform, the MEGADYNE ACE BLADE™ 700 Soft Tissue Dissector (ACE), was designed to provide both excellent hemostasis and wound healing. This study compared ACE to scalpel and standard electrosurgery in a porcine model of wound healing. METHODS: Skin incisions from six pigs were evaluated at time points of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 6 weeks after application of the three devices. Histopathology was performed on samples from each time point. For each non-initial time point, the healing incisions were photographed for later evaluation by expert graders, and excised for wound strength testing. RESULTS: Time 0 photomicrographs showed a gradient of thermal tissue damage by initial incision, ranging from no damage made by the scalpel, minimal damage made by ACE, and twice the ACE damage made by a nonstick PTFE-coated electrosurgical blade. Histopathologic analysis at 6 weeks showed comparable dermal scar width measurements for scalpel and ACE incisions. Scars were wider for incisions made by standard electrosurgical blade. Wound strength was greater for scalpel and ACE than for standard electrosurgery. Cosmetic results at 6 weeks were not significantly different between scalpel and ACE incisions, while standard electrosurgical blade incisions were significantly inferior to ACE (odds ratio: 53.4, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The MEGADYNE ACE BLADE™ 700 Soft Tissue Dissector represents a significant improvement in electrosurgical technology for skin incisions and dispels the traditional concerns of delayed healing and poor cosmetic result that have been attributed to using conventional electrosurgical blades for skin incisions.